Itachi and Sasuke of the accursed Uchiha clan
by To.Elysium
Summary: Everyone knows The Uchiha clan is the best, but it is also the most depraved. Itachi learns just how depraved when he finds himself in an unthinkable position; Sasuke removing his robe on top of Itachi. Itasasu. Dark drama.
1. The snake and the secret

Prologue:::

Urgent whispers echoed in the secret underground meeting place whilst a whitish green snake encircled the perimeters of the room, attempting to enter but was thwarted by numerous powerful barriers. Not a word could be heard thanks to the sound proof seals cautiously placed outside.

"Well," hissed a low malicious voice two-hundred miles away as a grotesque tongue licked an albino white mouth in depraved rapture, "This just makes it all the more interesting, my dear Madara. Why the sudden need for secrecy?"

"Kabuto!" he rasped, "Bring me the anti-barrier seal and the sensus reversal seal."

The desired items were received and pasty white hands rolled out the forbidden seals with cautious meticulation.

"Now then," he crooned creepily, "reveal your secrets to me like a blushing bride." He bit his thumb and drew the required blood to line the scrolls with, made the appropriate complex hand signs and chanted some ancient verses. His chakra was swiftly drained from the effort, attesting to the strength of the barrier cast. But it was worth it for though the snake could still not enter, he could at last hear the coveted dialogue.

Over at the other end of the room, Kabuto flinched at his eccentric master's always disturbing speech. But he himself was dying of curiosity. Everybody had heard that Madara had a plan for winning the current war that involved Itachi's co-operation but nobody knew what it was. The rumors were such that it suggested it was a very appalling plan indeed for Itachi was not rumored to be open to it. And everybody knew just how much Itachi despised war and everything it encompasses; he would be the first one forward if there were anything that could be done to stop it. But Madara is not interested in stopping wars, only about winning them and the land and power that goes along with it.

"Oh, deactivate your sharingan, Itachi," a deep, lazy and cocky voice drolled and Orochimaru recognized it as Madara's. "You...as to possibly think...you could win...me?"

"Curses!" Orochimaru vehemently hissed. "It's not enough! I can't hear the entire conversation!"

Kabuto came around the table, standing opposite Orochimaru whose head was bent low and eyes closed as he concentrated on his snake's faulty reception.

"I absolutely refuse." a much younger, angry sounding voice rang through.

"Ahhh, Itachi," Orochimaru swooned dragging his tongue all over his mouth again, "My beautiful Itachi...what troubles you?"

Kabuto dug his nails into his palms to prevent him expressing his nausea. Of course no one would argue with Orochimaru; Itachi was drop dead gorgeous but the way he drooled over the young boy was so disgusting. Orochimaru was in his sixties, at _least_ and Itachi was only nineteen.

"Be pragmatic about... ... Young Uchiha," croaked a withering voice, one of the Elders of Konoha, no doubt. Orochimaru had never liked that old bat. Her eye shadow was the same as his.

"How can you possibly expect... ...something so vile?" Itachi had not raised his voice, but his anger and disgust rang clear.

"Sacrifices have to be made," this time it was the voice of the other should-have-been-dead-fifty-years-ago Elder, Danzou.

"Oh, shut the f... ...sacrifices, Danzou, you bastard. Nobody's buying your... ...shit... send them to their ...while you're safe behind your..." the cheery but still indolent voice of Madara carried, "but you know...can't deny that it would be the fastest ... ...end the war, Itachi. You can't enjoy... dying all over the place. Not that I give a ...We need that power, plain and si... ...So suck it up and go f... brother, Itachi."

"Am I to believe there is no other way to activate ... supposedly undefeatable...?"

A mock jaded sign resonated. "Must we embark on another ... discussion of our f... clan's depraved history? Our bloodline is such that... ... unspeakable things to acquire great power... ...kill a ... ... ...away innocence and trust me, Itachi, the power feels ...amazing!"

"I don't care about the power, Madara. There is simply no way I am ever agreeing to do such a thing to my brother."

"Why not?" Madara chuckled, "He is _your_ brother. He's inherited some.. ... ...genes. Hell, if I were in your position I'd summon him right ... ... ... ... till he screams."

There was a bit of commotion after this; a scuffle, a yell, an irritated reprimand... the unclear auditory transmissions were irritating the crap out of Orochimaru who was now a thousand times more curious and eager to know what exactly Itachi would have to do to his brother?

It seemed Madara's comments were not received well by his audience as a whole.

"...so crude." the old hag barked. "It is simply unavoidable...losing many people. Think of ... ... others have brothers just like you do and care for them just as... ... you could be saving and ..."

"Phrase it any way you want, Elder," Itachi replied stiffly. "Your method of ... ... is as bad as... ..."

"There is an ancient power associated with the loss of ... called "Innocence Mortality" an ancient sacred ritual for the cause of... ..."

"Kabuto!" Orochimaru spat "Look for any and all scrolls pertaining to this ritual! The libraries! The forbidden archives! Go, Now!"

Hating Orochimaru for depriving him of the juicy information, he bowed stiffly and left.

"...Common in the ...century, eight hundred years ago where this sort of... was quite common... this will remain in absolute confidence... of course, except the boy... seal your tongues..."

"You touch him, Danzou and I will-" Itachi angrily interrupted.

"Calm yourself young ..."

"There's no need for all that sealing of tongues shit. Itachi knows how to shut his pretty little mouth. And who cares about morality? We are... _war_ here, in case you haven't noticed... it's bound to get a little dirty, of course.. ... more of the pleasurable kind..." Madara's tone got lecherous towards the end which had Orochimary peeling woodchips of the table as he gripped it tenaciously, straining to hear more, willing that something significant will be revealed.

What was it? Spit it out already! Madara, you bastard, hogging all the fun. He was... _teasing_ Itachi, wasn't he? Taunting him and tormenting him if that tone was any indication. Orochimaru wanted to see Itachi all angry and bothered; he had overheard two girls giggling about it saying that Itachi looked even "hotter" if possible.

"Oh, stop glaring, Itachi, you're scaring me, " Madara scoffed mockingly. "Are you telling me you've never thought of bending- whoa!"

Orochimaru staggered back at the explosion noise he received directly in his ear. He was fairly certain his eardrum had burst. Trying to shake the ringing in his head to quickly resume his eavesdropping, he leaned forward and pressed his ear into the scroll, to hear as clearly as he could. He was fairly certain he had just missed a crucial piece of information. What was the last thing Madara had said? He asked if Itachi ever thought of bending...Mmm. Well, Orochimaru most certainly thought of Itachi bending a lot. That boy was too damn attractive for his own good.

After drooling for a while, Orochimaru snapped to and deciphered that Itachi had somehow or the other attacked Madara... not a very wise move, considering the only person alive that was stronger than Itachi was Madara. There was a lot of noise and disturbance and it was a while before cogent conversation resumed.

"Fine, Itachi." Madara snapped. He didn't sound so laid back and amused anymore. "I didn't want to... ... Sasuke is, of course, still a member of our clan but make no mistake... I will personally see to it... ... tortured endlessly... can perhaps protect him ... only so long and definitely not from... ...is your weakness, Itachi... do you think I don't...? ...Precious little brother..."

A resounding silence met Madara's threat. Orochimaru smiled evilly. Well, well… do something unthinkable to Sasuke himself or let his little brother be tortured endlessly? Those were Itachi's options, eh? He chuckled.

"Aw, my poor Itachi, caught between the Devil and the Deep blue Sea... so which will you choose? And for goodness' sakes, voice out in detail your choice."

"With this, we are assured victory," Danzou claimed confidently. "And what's more, Madara says the arbitrary powers bestowed may even grant us supreme power over not only the Land of Skies but the entire Nation... ... Conquer the world if we so..."

"Shut it, you piece of... ... let the ones who actually understand these matters talk, eh? ... covet as much as you like... are trash compared to the Uchiha."

Orochimaru rolled his eyes. Oh, the Uchihas and their superiority complexes. Itachi was the only good little boy he knew of who didn't think commoners should drop to their feet before him because of his superior bloodline.

"Or maybe the Uchiha themselves are trash." Itachi said softly and defiantly in a deadly tone.

Orochimaru laughed once again. "Ahhh, Itachi, my sweet. So brave, so noble... I wish I could lick you up and down..."

Madara was quiet for a moment... then, "You'll thank me tonight, you'll see."

"Tonight?"

"Well, you want him to wait till the war is over or something? So, Itachi are you going to break the news," he chuckled evilly, "Or shall I do the honors?"

Dead silence.

"Oh, if looks could kill." he drawled sardonically."But, wait... I'm immortal. Little Sasuke is lucky. There are people who would kill to be in his shoes... most disturbingly Orochimaru-"

Oh? It was always a pleasure to be mentioned... even if the adjective predecessing your name was unfair and untrue.

"Speaking of Orochimaru, one of his snakes-," Itachi said emotionlessly.

"Ah yes, is outside right now, right?"

"What? Madara, you! This is a matter of absolute...!" The elders were in an uproar.

"Yeah, yea ..h..I l ll... t..ak..e...ca...r...e" and that was it. So, they had noticed the snake. Damn, but still... How interesting... How very, very interesting.

Kabuto returned an hour later panting but holding only one scroll in his arm.

"A sharingan is needed to activate it, Lord Orochimaru."

Orochimaru waved a dismissive hand and drew out a bottle from a cluster on the shelves in the room, that was emitting a sickly green light from the fluid within it and contained a bobbing eye.

"The spoils of war, Kabuto," Orochimaru said, or more accurately slurped.

After the jutsu was performed, the seal rejected the sharingan, shattering the eyeball to bits.

"Soils of snakeskins!" Orochimaru cursed. It was sooo difficult to obtain a sharingan!

"Perhaps the mangekyou is needed?"

"Curse that elitist clan and their coveted juicy secrets!" Orochimaru hissed. "Oh, my dear Itachi... and my sweet Sasuke... what is to become of you'll?"

"Lord Orochimaru!" Kabuto called drawing his attention to the seal, which was now self-destructing in flames of black.

But a single word in kanji was revealed before all that was left of the scroll was the finest dust, almost indiscernible.

A foreboding and menacing word as it devoured itself with the flames.

**FORBIDDEN.**

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TBC

Let me know what you think!


	2. Innocence Mortality

Disclaimer : Naruto is not mine

Warnings : Yaoi, Incest, grudging exhibitionism, voyeurism. If this displeases you, then by all means do not read. If this does please you then enjoy!

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Sasuke walked into the room willing himself not to be shocked no matter what was waiting there for him. It was an underground room that was cool and spacious and deadly silent. He was wearing a sleeveless black robe that flowed from his neck to his ankles and had a long trail at the back. The choice of clothing was his... he would be more comfortable in this than anything else.

There were three people standing in the room; Madara who gave him a twisted smile and two ANBU on either side of the bed. In the centre of the room was a box shaped bed, lined with reds and blacks. It was Uchiha colors but in this situation it looked very sexual. The ANBU were positioned with their hand seals as complex kanji swirled in a circle around the bed and criss-crossed in the centre over the bed.

Sasuke had no expression on his face. He refused to make a single expression for the duration of this...thing. Finally after taking as silent a breath as possible he looked at the figure sitting on the side of the bed. Itachi was looking at him, also expressionless. His hair was tied back and he also wore loose black robes. In the candlelight that illuminated the room and cast dark shadows everywhere Itachi looked ethereal and beautiful.

Sasuke closed his eyes for a second, then licked his lips and moved toward the bed. Itachi was watching him silently. Sasuke reached out a hand and pushed Itachi back slightly. He got the message and laid down on the bed. Sasuke let out a sign which came out very shaky and loud, thanks to the morbid silence in the room and moved slowly, climbing on top of Itachi over his hips.

Sasuke had prepared himself before hand to lessen the duration of this...act. Also, so he wouldn't be giving that bastard in front of him a show. Sasuke knew though, that it couldn't be helped; this time, they had to yield to Madara.

_"Well?" Madara asked in a bored tone, checking out his nail polish as Fugaku and Mikoto held knives to their own throats and stared ahead blankly, being caught in a powerful genjutsu._

_Itachi and Sasuke stood frozen. Sasuke out of fear at Madara's threat and his parents' safety. Itachi out of disbelief at the person who stood in the shadows... the one person with genjutsu powerful enough to capture his parents._

Sasuke looked down at Itachi, who looked steadily back at him. Such similar features, and the same resigned blank expression. Was he really going to do this? His only comfort was that Itachi must be suffering just as much as Sasuke, if not more. What happened earlier must have really hurt Itachi. Sasuke had confronted him...

_"Why would you do such a thing, Shisui? How could you betray Itachi like that?"_

_"You have to believe me, Sasuke," Shisui replied in an anguished voice. "The last thing I want to do is hurt Itachi but I'd rather hurt him than have him killed by the hands of Madara."_

So everyone was being threatened. All the powerless little puppets dancing before Madara's will because it was the lesser of two evils. But that was one of the reasons Sasuke had agreed to do this. With this unbelievable ritual they would gain power. And with that power... never again would they be forced into a situation like this. Sasuke couldn't believe it when he first heard...

_"You're fucking kidding me." Sasuke said. "You have to have sex with me?"_

_Madara inclined his head towards Itachi, smiling slightly._

_"Evidently, it is a legitimate ritual of our clan. It dates back some eight hundred years ago, where not only was it commonly practiced, it was...favored. Incest was the norm back then so Uchiha were open to it." Itachi parroted tonelessly. "However back then, it did not awaken the formidable powers that it is known to now. For only those possessing the mangekyou could obtain supreme powers and they were precious few. Today the only ones alive who possess Mangekyou are Madara. Kakashi and I. As you know, no other Uchiha has had the genetic predisposition for it."_

_"Yes, yes," Madara drawled rudely, "and so Itachi is the lucky one chosen for greater powers because you see__,__ neither Kakashi nor I have siblings. At least siblings that are still alive. Oh, by the way, you _are_ a virgin, aren't you, Sasuke? Otherwise there is no point to this whole thing."_

Yes, Sasuke was a virgin. For now.

Sasuke was sitting on top of Itachi. He could feel that his brother was not hard. That was a problem. It was kind of an important necessity, after all. Okay, so this was Sasuke's problem since he had insisted that he was going to be doing everything and Itachi should just shut up and sit still.

_"Since it has come to this, I get to be the one to decide how to do it," Sasuke said angrily, venomously... a tone he has never used with Itachi before._

_Madara chuckled in the corner. Sasuke ignored the son of a bitch._

_"If...that is what you wish, Sasuke," Itachi replied quietly, not looking at Sasuke, not looking at anything..._

Sasuke wasn't quite sure why he had made that ultimatum. He just needed some sense of control.

So he began rubbing against Itachi, trying to coax some sort of reaction from him while thinking desperately about what would turn his brother on. Sasuke thought the rubbing felt good. It felt very good actually, considering just whom he was rubbing against. The friction was something new to Sasuke…he wasn't a complete novice when it came to sex; he had fooled around with a couple of girls but there was never the option of doing this… and it felt …pretty damn good, actually and he was getting hard so why wasn't Itachi, damn it? This was just making things more difficult.

Sasuke leant forward to position his mouth against Itachi's ear and also to hide what he was doing from Madara as much as possible. The ANBU most likely would see but Sasuke could care less about them. He trailed his hand down and moved aside Itachi's robe.

"Itachi," Sasuke whispered as softly as possibly. Oh damn, his voice came out huskier than he would have liked. This was bad. The situation was actually turning Sasuke on. He had planned not to speak at all at first, he had planned to come here, do a mechanical "task" and then get on with his life but now as his hand crept lower, searching to encircle his fingers around Itachi's cock he found he _wanted_ to talk to Itachi and say something that would hopefully turn him on… some sort of perverse pride of his wanted Itachi to think he was good in bed.

"You're not co-operating. You have to tell me…what turns you on? Should I henge? What would you like to see?"

Sasuke raised his head a fraction of an inch to catch Itachi's expression and saw him opening his mouth the slightest bit before closing it. Sasuke had never noticed just how sexy Itachi's face was. As he was now, Sasuke almost felt jealous at his beauty. He tightened his grip and began to move his hand up and down Itachi's considerable length.

"Itachi…I'm already hard…Can you feel it?" Sasuke breathed out as he moved his hips forward and aligned his length with Itachi's. As soon as their members touched Sasuke let out a moan that surprised even him.

"Hnmmm," Sasuke moaned as he bit his lip and rocked his hips back and forth, acquiring more delicious friction. "Ah…that feels so-o-o good," he panted and out of impulse he bit Itachi's earlobe. He felt Itachi harden against him and glanced at his brother. Itachi looked a little mortified. His lips were pressed tight together and his eyes were open looking at Sasuke like he was crazy. Whether that look was for Sasuke biting his ear or Sasuke's bedroom voice or the actual words Sasuke was saying…it was hard to say. Maybe Sasuke _had_ lost his mind because right now he wanted Itachi inside him…wanted to know what it felt like to have sex…to be joined like that…

Sasuke couldn't wrap his hand around both their lengths together so he abandoned that and just rubbed against Itachi…it was effective because Itachi was finally fully hard.

"Ahhh, ah, ahhh." Sasuke pressed his lips against Itachi's neck in an effort to silence or at least muffle his cries. God, this was embarrassing. Who knew he was so vocal when it came to this stuff?

That was enough. It was time for the painful part. He glanced up at Madara out of sheer curiosity and was miffed to find him looking criminally amused.

Sasuke pushed himself up on his knees and lifted his robe by the sides and positioned himself over Itachi. He reached his hand out behind him and guided Itachi's shaft towards his entrance. Biting his lip against the stinging pain, he slowly lowered himself onto Itachi's girth. Perhaps he should have prepared himself with four fingers…or five.

Madara was thoroughly enjoying himself. Who knew Sasuke was such a confident amateur? He bet Itachi didn't see that coming. He didn't hear the words themselves but when Sasuke spoke to Itachi in that tone and he caught sight of Itachi's horrified face it was all he could do to keep from laughing out loud. After all, Itachi had been fighting so hard to protect and preserve his precious little brother's innocence and now to have Sasuke rubbing against him so confidently and donning an expression that clearly shouted he was experiencing sexual bliss must have been quite the surprise.

But now with Sasuke finally having been penetrated, it was time to get down to business. He nodded at the Uchiha behind the masks who silently nodded and began weaving hand signs. The kanji around and on the bed moved up to plaster itself onto Itachi's and Sasuke's bodies, not that you could see very much with those damned robes in the way. Perhaps Madara should have insisted they wear their normal clothes so he could get a better view. The kanji wrapped around Sasuke's arms and reached up to his slender pale neck, where the black contrasted beautifully. He couldn't see the kanji on Itachi but the ANBU to Madara's left nodded in confirmation that the seal was in place.

He looked back at the two entwined brothers to see Sasuke moving slowly. It was easy to see by the look on his face he was too far gone and drained of energy to muster the strength to move properly. Before Madara could insert his two cents and tell them they were operating on a strict deadline and had to wrap things up before the full moon faded completely since Itachi was being so stubborn about the issue and they had wasted a lot of time, Itachi suddenly moved.

Before Sasuke could comprehend what happened, he was on his back looking up at Itachi who raised his thighs up and began thrusting in deeply and intensely. Sasuke hadn't been expecting that at all and lost his control over trying to keep his voice down.

"Ah! Ahhh, ah ahhhh!" Sasuke's screams echoed across the room and Madara raised his eyebrows at the display. He had thought Itachi agreed to let Sasuke call the shots. Perhaps he was aware of the pressing time as well and knew it would have all been a waste if the full moon fades while they're still joined? Or perhaps Itachi finally decided to have a little fun himself.

"Ah! Ahhh!" Sasuke threw his head back and gripped the sheets so tightly they came loose. Itachi was panting himself but still not making allowing himself to release a sound of any sexual nature. His eyes were shut tightly as if he were chastising himself for doing this, even now.

Sasuke could hardly breathe. Itachi was relentless and, luckily for Sasuke, accurate because it most certainly would have been more painful than pleasurable if not. Every time he would push into him Sasuke would think it could hardly get better but every single following thrust proved him wrong. He was making **a lot **of loud and sex-crazed noises but he couldn't even hear himself. Just when Sasuke thought he would faint from the exertion and lack of oxygen to his hormone filled brain cells he came and was followed soon after by Itachi.

Recuperating from the post coital bliss and oxygen debt he hardly felt the kanji entering his eyes. When he looked up to see Itachi though he saw the last traces enter his brothers' eyes and Itachi's sharingan automatically activated, spinning wildly as an evolution took place within them. His brother looked gorgeous above him, panting and exhausted.

Sasuke almost forgot there were others in the room but then a deep cruel voice brought him back to harsh reality.

"One last thing," Madara said, producing a kunai from nowhere and expertly and swiftly cutting himself on the arm. "Itachi, you first." Madara ordered holding his hand out.

Itachi pulled out and moved to the side, sitting on his heels as he drank Madara's blood.

Sasuke watched, mesmerized as the red touched Itachi's sensual lips and his tongue deftly licked it away. Without really thinking about his actions, Sasuke's body moved on its' own.

His hand reached out and wrapped its arm around Itachi's neck and jerked him forward. He only had a second to catch Itachi's surprised expression before he pressed his lips fully and firmly against Itachi's.

Itachi pulled back immediately and that action triggered Sasuke's realization of what he had just done. Sasuke flinched back in horror and looked away. Oh god. What had just happened? Oh god, oh god. He had…he had…

Oh my **god****…**what the hell was that? Oh god No! What had he done? He couldn't look Itachi in the eyes!

Madara looked between Sasuke and Itachi both of whom were looking in opposite directions. So neither could look the other in the eye now, huh?

"You still have to drink, sex kitten."

Sasuke hated Madara with every fiber of his being yet he couldn't stop himself blushing in front of him. Oh god, he had done all that in front of him!

Sasuke drank, just wanting to get it over with and then run somewhere far away where he could Chidori a large number of things to ashes. He could feel Madara's chuckle through the rumbling of his arm and he pushed his hand away. Sticking his tongue out at the vile taste, he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and stood up. He wanted to know what Itachi was looking like right now but he just couldn't bring himself to, scared at the possibility that he might see disgust or hatred or hurt or even disappointment.

So…feeling hideous he left without a word to his brother.

Madara looked at Itachi who was faced away from him, his head bowed and his falling hair obscuring his face.

Madara signed like a long-suffering martyr and crossed his arms.

"You are dismissed." He ordered and the ANBU quickly took their leave.

Itachi continued to look like a broken doll so Madara grabbed his hair and pulled it painfully, forcing Itachi to look at him.

"You look fucking hot after sex, Itachi. Interested in another round? This time…" Madara said in a cold voice that made it seem like he was almost angry at the situation. "Purely for pleasure."

Itachi narrowed his eyes.

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Back at the medic unit, Mikoto who had volunteered to help out the medic nins whenever she could, was helping Shizune bandage the injured shinobi's wounds.

All of a sudden she felt very light-headed and stepped away from the person she was helping. She tried to steady herself but a wave of dizziness assaulted her.

"Hey, lady…you okay?" asked the concerned patient.

Mikoto shook her head weakly and then without any warning fainted on the floor.

"Hey, hey! Someone help! She's burning up!"

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TBC


	3. They don't defend you

Sasuke's life had turned upside down and inside out with just that one night.

First of all there were the rumors.

It was amazing how fast they spread. And if a certain piece of information had the words "absolute secrecy" or "must remain in complete confidence" or "no one must ever find out" attached to it then it would travel even faster.

Maybe it was Madara or it could have been the ANBU... Itachi was a bit of an absurd possibility but a possibility nonetheless. Sasuke was only certain of one thing and that was that _he_ did not divulge the secret. It wasn't his finest moment after all. After his cock had handed over control of cognition back to his brain he was briefly suicidal, unable to deal with the fact that he had acted that way with his goddamn brother. And...said certain things he most certainly should not have said.

But after reducing a large amount of fauna to ash with a particularly vengeful fire jutsu, he realized short of killing everybody who knew about the incident there was nothing he could do.

Besides it was not without its' benefits. There was a purpose behind it. Itachi had gained immeasurable power. They had stopped the war because of it.

Following the ritual Itachi was ordered to rest a day although he refused at first because other matters where troubling Itachi to the point where he couldn't sit still, but Madara had only to mention that rest was required or else a certain _incident_ would have been pointless. Itachi's eyes bled a lot that day. He endured in silence and Madara goaded him the entire time. Tsunade tried to force him out of the room since his presence was clearly bothering Itachi a lot more than the physical pain he was enduring, but it proved to be a fruitless endeavor since no one could actually touch Madara. Even though Tsunade angrily reminded him his time was better spent on the battlefield, where he was actually needed he dismissed her flippantly saying the war would soon be over.

Everyone was in two minds over Madara's constant presence at Itachi's bedside. At first, it seemed he obviously wanted to make sure there were no complications arising with Itachi's new eyes as this would be their greatest weapon to winning the war and he seemed to possess the most knowledge concerning the matter so naturally he stayed. But it soon became clear that Madara took great pleasure in annoying the crap out of Itachi. And it baffled everyone who knew Madara that this trumped entering the battlefield for Madara was infamous for his love of bloodlust. Madara kept making fun of Itachi's silence saying that he should just scream because the pain was supposed to be overwhelming and that always turned into an esoteric innuendo that Itachi didn't appear to appreciate.

Finally when he was discharged after his eyes had stopped bleeding, nearly an entire day later, Itachi entered the battlefield and immobilized the enemy army in an unbreakable Tsukyomi that did not require eye-contact from the receiver. All Itachi had to do was look at the desired victim and cast the genjutsu. His Tsukyomi was no longer limited to one person, but was capable of trapping an entire legion of soldiers.

Of course it wasn't as simple as all that. There were exceptions to this binding; those who possessed impressive kekkai-genkai and those that had abnormal chakra systems, however the number of these shinobi were precious few as even the most skilled genjutsu users found the casting impossible to break. And they were easily taken care of since most of them lost their resolve seeing all their comrades captured and feeling hope diminish. There was one shockingly perseverant shinobi who seemed to have nothing left to loose and letting out an unholy war cry he charged like a tornado and managed to kill ten Konoha shinobi before Madara finally decided to intervene and lazily killed him with a simple swipe of a kunai.

Madara smiled in a very scary way at all the prisoners. Itachi had seemed worried. Sasuke too, sensed there was something else driving Madara through all this...an ulterior motive that was still too well-hidden to found accusations upon.

Still, there was no doubt it was the land of Fire's triumph. A landslide victory and the end of what could have been a very long war.

So that was one pragmatic benefit of the scandalous affair. Another was that Sasuke himself obtained Mangekyou. Though Mangekyou had only previously manifested in those genetically compatible with the ocular jutsu this circumstance was an exception. Although, and this confused and enraged Sasuke to no end, its' power wasn't as transparently obvious as Itachi's had been. Itachi knew right away what his new powers were and Madara knew too... saying it could only go that way since "innocence mortality" increases the preponderance of existing Mangekyou powers to a shocking degree. Sasuke had obtained his Mangekyou through unconventional means to say the least so there was no known protocol or sure fire method to discover the extent of his newfound power.

So ...yeah. The war was over. Konoha was recovering well and rejoicing. Itachi had obtained new powers as had Sasuke..sort of. So...yeah. It was not without its benefits. And besides it wasn't like the act itself was as abominable as he had thought it would be.

Is that...okay?

Is that like...normal?

To think that having sex with your elder brother whom you respect deeply is not atrocious?

But it wasn't atrocious. It wasn't the hell Sasuke had expected and tried to prepare himself for. He not only didn't hate it...he enjoyed-

No. _Yes._

He had. It was better to just admit it. Healthier. No one had to know. Well besides Itachi, Madara and two unknown ANBU who already knew. Was Sasuke horrible for wishing they had died in the war on that final day? The ANBU at least. Sasuke didn't want Itachi to die and he wasn't naive enough to believe that Madara could die.

But well, it hardly mattered Sasuke told himself. It was over. It was done. Even if it was the most pleasure he had ever received in his life it wasn't happening again so it didn't matter what he felt. Because the issue was closed. That's all she wrote. The end of the matter...right?

Wrong. So terribly greatly devastatingly wrong.

Because somehow everybody knew.

Everybody knew that Itachi Uchiha had fucked (because that's the word they used) his younger brother to gain power.

Sasuke felt everyone stare at him. And it wasn't in the way he was used to. It wasn't moony, lusting or jealous stares that said "ooh, isn't he dreamy?" or "damn, that Uchiha's got talent."

It was hate- filled malicious unforgiving judgmental stares.

Sasuke now knew how Naruto felt when he was young.

And just like Naruto he wasn't going to let that deter him. It happened whether they liked it or not and he was going to continue living his life.

And it was just so...disappointingly typical of ...humanity that they would conveniently forget that Itachi had largely agreed to it because of _them_. Because he hated war and wanted to stop the bloodshed. Hadn't Madara and the Elders exploited that? Where then was the sympathy? Where was the gratitude?

Instead...

_'He fucked his own brother? That's messed up shit.'_

_'Those damn Uchiha think they're so much better than us when they're disgusting incestuous freaks...all their doing is prostituting themselves for power'_

_'What kind of messed up bastard would agree to something like that? I thought he was a genius or something...he's just messed up in the head'_

_'You're telling me we won the war __'__cause some guy boinked his brother? Man, I'd rather die than be saved because of that.'_

Why, Sasuke would be glad to arrange that...he nearly attacked the guy too...he was just passing by when he overheard the topic of discussion but then a girl interrupted impeccably.

_No, think about what you're saying, you __**idiots**__. First of all Sasuke and Itachi are both __**guys**__. How can two guys have sex? It's," she gave a haughty little huff, "not __**possible**__, you retards. Second of all Sasuke is, like, __**hot**__._

Somehow or the other that incredible girl with limited knowledge of life made Sasuke completely loose his killing urge and he walked away unseen by the absorbed group.

He had bigger problems to worry about. Like his mother for example.

On the night of...that …thing Itachi and he had endured…shared, Mikoto had fainted and luckily she was tended to immediately but her condition didn't improve.

Sakura had rushed to tell him the news.

_He wasn't in the mood to see anyone for a while and he really didn't want to deal with Sakura right now. He'd rather have Naruto. At least Naruto he could punch._

_"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun!"_

_Signing in a way that left no room for doubt that he wasn't in a mood for living creatures, he turned around to face her. "What, Sakura?"_

_But Sakura's face filled Sasuke with dread._

_"It's your mother! She just fainted! Luckily Shizune was there and she's being tended to now by Tsunade-sama but - " She trailed off worriedly and Sasuke immediately left, Sakura following close behind._

_When Sasuke entered the ward only Tsunade and his mother were there. Mikoto was thrashing on the bed and Tsunade was trying hard to alleviate her pain._

_"This is nothing like I have ever seen before! It's not poison and it__'__s not a fever or any disease I've known. She's burning up at an alarming rate. I checked her chakra networks but there seems to be something blocking me from properly examining her. Sasuke...I have a bad feeling about this...use your sharingan."_

_Sasuke did so. And what he saw he couldn't understand. _

_Sharingan sees chakra as different colors. Each individual had their own specific color. Sasuke's was the blue-white of lightning. Naruto's was a golden yellow and so on. _

_Mikoto had always had a light grey color but now within her there seemed to be black chakra growing and ...what? Was it...feeding on her chakra? No...that's unheard of..right?_

_Alarmed__,__ Sasuke reported what he saw._

_Tsunade looked grim. "Is this an Uchiha thing?"_

_"What? How can it be? I've never heard of such a thing happening! Can't you do something? She's in pain!"_

_"When I attempted to check her chakra network, there seemed to be a force repelling me. I used everything I know to break the barrier and,sasuke? My knowledge of this is intensive. It seems like some sort of sign or trigger is needed to gain access and the fact that you were able to see her with your sharingan is proof. This is something related to Uchiha, unless I have knowledge about this I'm afraid I can't help. The most I can do is stabilize her condition but I worry that it might not be the right thing to do. I've sent someone for Madara, but he hasn't shown up yet. Where is he! He's not on the battlefield today is he? Wasn't he supposed to be doing something with Itachi today..?"_

_Sasuke blushed despite the situation. "I -I'll get him." Was he still ..there? And if so, what was he doing? was...Itachi still there?_

_"No need. I'm here. What is it Tsunade? I was busy." Madara drawled stepping through the door with Itachi following just behind._

_Itachi, Sasuke noticed looked hollow. Sasuke wasn't ready to see him again so soon. But with this situation it couldn't be helped. _

_Itachi looked at his mother convulsing in bed and then to Tsunade. His expression changed from dead to concerned._

_"What exactly is it that you're waiting for, Tsunade? Stabilize her already." Madara signed lazily._

_Tsunade tended to Mikoto, but remembered to glare at Madara soon after. Mikoto stopped thrashing about and seemed to be in a comatose state. Itachi and Sasuke watched, still tense._

_"I've stabilized her for now." Tsunade said, wiping her forehead._

_"Oh? Would you like applause?" Madara monotoned. _

_"Would you mind explaining what the hell is going on?" Tsunade said, punching a side table into the wall to leave a sizable crater._

_"It doesn't concern you, Tsunade."_

_"It concerns us," Itachi hissed dangerously. "What is that black chakra mass?"_

_Madara shrugged callously. "You'll find out...I'd say...sometime...soon?"_

_Itachi was about to say something but Tsunade intervened stepping towards him and pulling up his arm. "What happened to your arm Itachi?"_

_Itachi was bleeding. _

_Sasuke started. It had been forever since he had seen Itachi with a wound.  
><em>

_Itachi didn't answer and Madara waved his hand happily. "A minor disagreement is all."_

_Tsunade glared at him nastily as she healed Itachi. _

_"Oh! Now what?" Tsunade exclaimed as Itachi's eyes began to bleed. _

_She raised her hands almost instinctively prepared to heal but a second passed ...and Tsunade blinked finding her hand being painfully gripped by the wrist and held a good distance from Itachi as Madara gave her a menacing truly frightening glare with the added intimidation of a swirling sharingan._

_"Do not. touch. Itachi's eyes." Madara rumbled in his deep voice._

_Tsunade was truly a brave woman for withstanding her ground in the face of that sudden fury. He let go revealing a nasty mark from the force that he held her with._

_"I apologize, Tsunade-sama," Itachi said. _

_"This is part of the process, Itachi. It's supposed to be unbearably painful. Don't be ashamed to, you can scream. After all," Madara slipped back into his amused tone and deactivated his sharingan. "I already heard an Uchiha scream today...and he wasn't ashamed to at all." _

_Itachi glared at Madara and Sasuke felt like sinking into the floor. They were still wearing their black robes and Sasuke could feel the semen against the inside of the fabric but the material was thick so nothing was visible. His mother and Tsunade were in the room and he knew he was flushing but he couldn't help that. He knew though the words could only be construed as a double entendre if they were to react. _

_Sasuke went to his mothers__'__ side. "Will she be alright?" He asked both Madara and Tsunade but Tsunade jerked her head towards Madara with a contemptuous look._

_"Like I said, you'll find out soon. Now, come, Itachi you have to rest." _

_Madara quelled Itachi's protests with "She's comatose. Even if you stay by her side nothing exciting is going to happen. Now be a good boy and listen to me."_

_Sasuke wanted to say something. He had so many questions. He wanted to ask if Itachi was alright, if the pain was really bad, what exactly had happened with his arm, what was he doing with Madara after he left..._

Are we alright?

Do you hate me?

Did you hate...that?

_But Sasuke never said a thing and Itachi didn't look at him as he was pulled away by Madara to another room. _

It had been four days since then. Mikoto was still in a stable condition but that black chakra continued to worry Sasuke. It was almost alive and the last time Sasuke had visited Mikoto it seemed to ...growl.

It was troubling but what was the absolute worst was the fact that he hadn't spoken to Itachi since then. Their relationship which once seemed unbreakable and whole was now deteriorating. He had never been avoided by Itachi before. He had never avoided Itachi before.

Sasuke wanted to see him so badly it was unbearable. He had a dozen things to ask and more to say and more than anything he wanted to touch him again. Just touch his eyes and see for himself if they were okay. Or touch his hair and ask him why he never wore it loose. Or punch him on the shoulder and congratulate him for ending the war.

Sasuke was filled with an insatiable longing that was torturous.

He had to see Itachi...he couldn't let it continue like this. They were brothers...they were so close...they could overcome this.

He entered the ward in which his mother was being kept but before he could do much more than look around properly he was pulled by his shirt and slammed hard up against a wall.

He found himself face to face with Fugaku.

"Sasuke!" His father barked looking both livid and disbelieving. "What the hell is this I've been hearing about you and Itachi?"

.

.

.

TBC


	4. A stigma thicker than blood

When the rumors started, Sasuke knew it would reach his father eventually. And he knew that, when it did, Fugaku would be disgusted with Sasuke and Sasuke alone.

Sasuke and Itachi had done it for _them_. Well, partly...there were so many other factors involved, but ultimately it was the safety of his parents being compromised that had made Sasuke relent to Madara. Well...more so the safety of his mother but still...

Actually...Sasuke thought seriously, blinking with the realization of the possibility; had Sasuke done it for his parents at all?

_"So...Sasuke." Madara said pronouncing his name with a flourish as he circled Sasuke. "Do you want more power? Of course you want more power," he answered his own question, all the while speaking in the most annoying tone of voice. "Your brother is Itachi for crying out loud! The pride of the clan! The beloved prodigy! So...what would you give to reach his level?" Sasuke looked at Itachi, asking with his eyes why he was called away from the war so unceremoniously to listen to this nonsense?_

_But Itachi wasn't looking at him. He was glaring at Madara with his arms tightly crossed. Clearly Sasuke wasn't the only one irritated. _

_"Madara," Itachi bit out._

_Madara stopped circling and stood in front of Sasuke, way too close to his face and treated him to a very ugly smile._

_"There is a way... to obtain Mangekyou." Sasuke looked back at him impassively__._

_"Geez, you two are so stoic." he looked back at Itachi as if it were all his fault. So boring," he signed theatrically. "Well? Do you want it or not?" he said, a bit of an edge to his voice now._

_"Obviously." Sasuke replied in that pompous way of his._

_It seemed to be exactly what Madara wanted to hear. "Obviously," he repeated looking at Itachi and waggling his eyebrows. "He obviously wants it, he says."_

_"Shut up, Madara," Itachi snapped, his patience having reached its' limit. "Sasuke, its' not that simple. There is a certain requirement for this advancement...it's a depraved custom... You and I would have to... the necessities for the power bestowed are...siblings were...It's a ritual called Innocence Mortality and it involves two siblings committing in-...having sexual intercourse."_

_Madara looked at Itachi, wrinkling his nose. "What the hell was that, Itachi? I've heard the Uzumaki brat be more eloquent than that."_

_Madara looked at Sasuke who was staring wide-eyed at Itachi, his mouth open from shock._

_"During the full moon. That is an important condition to satisfy." Madara nodded sagely._

_"You're fucking kidding me. You have to have sex with me?"_

_"Itachi protested," Madara complained. "Sasuke this and Sasuke that. Honestly, I don't see the big deal. If you love him so much this should be easy, right? And it's not like Sasuke's ugly. If you weren't brothers this would hardly be a hurdle. And what the hell is that belief of yours that says having sex with each other would be wrong? Social conventions and dictates...arbitrary rules, really..." Madara paused smiling in amusement at some thought in that demented head of his, "It's not like either of __**you**__ can bear defective children. This thing was common in my time. If it were me, I wouldn't mind having sex with my brother or sister if I had either. Uchiha were born out of incest. That's just the way our clan works. Get rid of your parochial mindset."_

_Sasuke looked at Madara, still disbelieving._

_"Itachi gains power. You gain power. Power we can stop this war with. One of your little friends got hurt the other day, didn't they Sasuke? You can help stop that."_

_"We can stop the war?" Sasuke asked amazed then incredulously added, "__**By having sex**__?"_

_Madara chuckled and inclined his head towards Itachi. "I'm pretty sure the confirmation would be more assuring coming from you."_

_"Evidently, it is a legitimate ritual of our clan. I checked the lithographs in the shrine."_

_"So untrusting," Madara said in mock hurt._

_"It dates back some eight hundred years ago where not only was it commonly practiced, it was favored. Incest was the norm back then-" _

_Madara raised his hands as if to say 'ah, there! I told you so.' Itachi ignored him, watching Sasuke for his reaction instead._

_"- so Uchiha were open to it. However back then it did not awaken the formidable powers it is known to now. For only those possessing the Mangekyou could obtain supreme powers and they were precious few. Someone who was in perfect physical condition had the mangekyou and a sibling was a suitable candidate for the ritual. It didn't matter if the other sibling had it or not. Through the ritual, with certain other conditions such as the full moon and seals created at specific intervals-"_

_"So, tonight! Since a full moon is scheduled," Madara interrupted like an annoying child, cupping his hand around his mouth. Sasuke stared at him, thinking a mile a minute (had he said tonight?) and Itachi fisted his hands, managing to keep his temper in check and continued resolutely, a bit louder than before._

_"-The sibling that has Mangekyou develops an infinite unbreakable version of their unique mangekyou and the sibling that does not will develop their own mangekyou. Today, the only ones alive who possess mangekyou are Madara, Kakashi and I. As you know, no other Uchiha has had the genetic predisposition for it."_

_"Yes, yes. And so Itachi is the lucky one chosen for greater powers because, you see, neither Kakashi nor I have siblings. At least siblings that are still alive. Oh, by the way, you are a virgin, aren't you, Sasuke? Otherwise there is no point to all of this. And... Itachi? Have you noticed his complete lack of protest thus far? He might even want this. Do you realize how much of a fool that makes you seem?"_

_Sasuke's sharingan automatically activated from anger. "Don't think you know anything about me, Madara. This is all a moot point, isn't it? If Itachi already said no, why the hell are you bothering to ask me?"_

_Madara looked mightily amused at Sasuke's response. "But Itachi has given in, Sasuke."_

_Sasuke head snapped up to look at Itachi, "What?"_

_"It wasn't easy, trust me. Torturing loyal shinobi with tongue seals to procure information is a thousand times easier in comparison. But you see," Madara smiled sweetly and this was perhaps his scariest look. "I had a trump card."_

_"Which is?"_

_"Nothing, Sasuke." Itachi said quickly._

_"Oh, come on, Itachi. Stop trying to hide everything from him. He might as well know. Besides, you don't know everything yourself. When we were...discussing matters earlier it struck me just how messy it could get, because we all know you can fight so to prevent such an__…__unpleasant incident arising... I've taken measures. There's a little surprise for you..."_

_Mikoto and Fugaku entered the room just then but something was wrong. Their eyes were glassy and they walked robotically. _

_Sasuke realized in alarm they were under genjutsu. Before Sasuke could even think of moving toward them there was a chink of metal as sharp kunai were aimed at their jugulars in deadly accuracy. _

_"I'm sorry, Itachi," Shuisu said pathetically from the corner of the room. _

_Itachi looked at him a while then said bitterly, "You too, then."_

_"I really _really_ didn't want it to come to this, Itachi, but you know Madara has a point! I know what he's asking you to do-but this is going to continue if you say no. And if it comes down to a fight then ...Itachi not only you and Madara but Sasuke, your parents, I and countless others will get involved. We can__'__t afford an in-fighting over this matter when we're already at war. I know it__'__s inhumane... but sometimes sacrifices have to be made."_

_"Shuisu, you can't honestly believe all he wants is to end the war?"_

_Madara looked deeply offended. "That __**is**__ all I want...and you know, I've been getting a little lonely."_

_Sasuke had tuned them out. Madara must really want this. But whatever his actual goal was, because like Itachi, Sasuke didn't think Madara had suddenly become a pacifist, it didn't matter. Shuisu was right. Until they agreed, Madara would continue to use people close to them and threaten their lives...and knowing Madara was immortal, a fight would just be pointless... if there was one thing Sasuke did not want, it was for Itachi and Madara to fight seriously against one another. Madara was actually making it easy for him to say yes. _

_"It's fine, already!" Sasuke burst out and everyone turned to look at him. "I'll do it. Tonight, right?"_

_Itachi looked at him, his face inscrutable._

_Shuisu looked greatly relieved. "Oh, thank you, Sasuke."_

_Sasuke shot him a dirty glare. "Release them."_

_"Yes, by all means," Madara assented. "That can't be a very pleasant situation to be in."_

_Shuisu did so making the elder Uchihas believe they had come here by choice to see Itachi and Sasuke. _

_Fugaku looked at Madara and greeted him gruffly. "So, Madara. I trust my boy has been helping you greatly with the war." he said glancing at Itachi will poorly hidden pride._

_"Oh, yes, indeed." Madara agreed boredly. "And Sasuke as well."_

_"Ah, yes, well, Sasuke," Fugaku said airily. "But the _mangekyou _is no doubt of great importance. I hear you have plans to help stop the war instantly with Itachi here."_

_Sasuke looked at Fugaku angrily, if only he knew. Sasuke even kind of wanted to tell him...but if he did, he knew he would be the only one judged and Itachi would be the only one praised for his "nobility" and "self-sacrifice". Hell, Fugaku might even erect a statue in honor of his only talented son. Maybe even give a speech... and Sasuke just knew the word genius was going to be in there._

Thinking about that angered him. Sasuke would never be good enough for his father. He had given up trying to be a long time ago but he found that it still hurt when he was treated like this. Sasuke was not in the mood for this crap from his father. He had been having a very trying couple of days what with all the back-biting, and being slammed into a wall when all he wanted to do was check up on his mother, was driving him closer to the edge.

Sasuke looked back steadily at his father, showing him he was not at all intimidated even though he was looking into furious sharingan eyes, and said cuttingly, "Let go."

"Answer me, first." Fugaku growled. "Is what I've been hearing true?"

"What have you been hearing?" Sasuke asked. It came out a little more smart-ass than he had intended and Fugaku shook his haori in anger.

"You and Itachi, my son! Is it true?"

Sasuke recoiled in shock. Fugaku had made a statement that clearly _shown_ he only thought of Itachi as his son! Stung, Sasuke couldn't form a reply quickly and Fugaku, in his anger, took his silence badly. He jerked Sasuke forward only to slam him harder against the wall.

"It is true! I _cannot believe _that you would do such an abominable thing-"

"You don't know anything about it." Sasuke hissed, ignoring the stinging pain in his heart.

"I know that you had **sex** with him, you **depraved** boy! And that," he made a revolted face, "You enjoyed it!"

Sasuke flinched at the venom in those words. When it was said like that Sasuke honestly felt like vermin. He had thought it was okay...it was wrong, perhaps...twisted of him to feel that way but it was private...it was _supposed_ to be _private_. Sasuke's thoughts were his own but someone had snitched and it was appalling to hear it being said like that. Strangers he could handle...but his own father...? But then why should he consider this man a father? He clearly didn't think of him as his son.

"You know what,_ father_?" He gritted out in a much more controlled fury than Fugaku. "I did enjoy it. In fact, I loved it." His lip curling as he enunciated.

Fuagku threw Sasuke away from him with the grip he had on his haori. "You disgusting creature!"

Sasuke steadied himself easily and laughed hollowly, a deep rooted hatred for his father finally surfacing. "What's the matter? Weren't you so proud that Itachi could end the war? But I suppose if it involves putting his _perfect_ hands on **me** that diminishes it completely, doesn't it?"

Before Fugaku could respond to Sasuke's words, Sasuke thought he saw a movement near his mothers' bed and he looked towards her to confirm it but was suddenly blinded with a stinging pain in his eye. He blinked once in agony and then the pain was gone as soon as it came. His mother did not appear to have moved an inch. He looked back at Fugaku somewhat perplexed and found his father looking slightly afraid.

"Are you threatening me, boy?" Fugaku asked quietly.

Sasuke blinked. "What?"

"Since when have _you_ had the mangekyou?"

It was only after Fugaku mentioned it that Sasuke realized his mangekyou had somehow activated.

Confused, Sasuke deactivated it. It must have been his temper that triggered it. He ignored Fugaku for now and went toward his mother's bedside.

"Don't you dare touch her!" Sasuke had to withdraw his hand that had been reaching out to touch his mother's face when a kunai whizzed past.

Sasuke glanced up at his father and dismissing him as irrelevant for now, he touched his mothers' cheek and gasped on contact. His sharingan automatically activated and he could see that the black chakra had totally subsumed her own. The black chakra rippled within its container and folded into itself, roiling and writhing and at the point where Sasuke touched his mother it seemed to…purr.

But before Sasuke could attempt to further observe or comprehend this strange phenomenon he was knocked sideways as Fugaku's fist met the side of his stomach brutally.

As he crashed into the wall Sasuke registered Fugaku had used his full strength. Sasuke scoffed. This was still nothing. He had had much worse from Naruto and Lee.

Sasuke pushed himself up glaring at the man before him and activated his full body chidori but before he could give him the ass-kicking he deserved the door to the room burst open and Tsunade strode in looking official before she took in the scene and went red in the face.

"What on earth is going on here? Have you two lost your minds? This is not only an occupied ward but the patient happens to be related to you'll! Get out!"

Fugaku looked murderous. But he seemed to be waiting for Sasuke to leave before he would.

Well, that was fine. Sasuke was only too happy to get the hell out of there. Before he knew it his speed had carried him to the outskirts of Konoha forest where he often came when he wanted to be alone.

He signed, settling down against a banyan tree finding its' size and canopy of spreading branches and shade comforting. Sunlight dappled through and reminded Sasuke that the war was over. It also weirdly reminded him of Naruto. He had been avoiding nearly everyone these past four days.

The day after the ritual he had avoided dealing with his emotions by spending all day and a good portion of the night on the battlefield, injuring countless people and proving a great help to his cell. But after the war ended and people were praising Itachi to the high heavens Sasuke had retreated here and spent most of his time avoiding everyone else and trying to figure out his new powers. He had only entered the village when he needed to eat or to sneakily check up on his mother.

Sasuke always thought he could go weeks without needing to see anyone and perhaps it was true, with one sole exception. He missed his brother. During the war that had started without any warning at all, Itachi had developed a habit of visiting Sasuke every day at a random time to check up on him. The meetings were short and all they ever spoke about was the war and injuries and tactics but Itachi's presence, no matter how brief, by his side every single day led Sasuke to realize just how much Itachi cared for him. Itachi didn't even visit their mother every day. It was the most comforting thing in the world because no matter where Sasuke was, Itachi always managed to find him. When he would look up or turn around and see Itachi walking towards him Sasuke felt loved and significant.

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Why couldn't his father care even half as much as Itachi did? Fugaku had always snubbed him in favor of Itachi and had, on more than one occasion ignored Sasuke without even realizing it. But he had never been so mad at Sasuke before. He had never attacked him before. He had perhaps disregarded him but he never hated him.

_You and Itachi, my son! _

It still hurt.

He didn't know what was happening to his relationships anymore. His father, brother even his mother…it was all going to hell in a hand basket. Was this his punishment for enjoying it?

Among all the turbulent emotions that assaulted Sasuke when he was having sex with Itachi there was a small malignant part of him that delighted in the act not for the physical pleasure it was causing but rather the more dark psychological pleasure that spoke of revenge on his father by corrupting his treasured commodity. (Itachi)

It was twisted but it was human as well. When someone treats you badly you often get validation when someone superior to that person treats you well. Sasuke may have never had a father but he had always had Itachi. If he lost that now, he would feel so alone. He did feel so alone. He wasn't sure if…now, with things the way they are, Itachi would be there for him as his brother let alone compensate for the lack of a father figure in his life.

Sensing a sudden presence he spun around, his sharingan swirling and detected the muddy yellow brown chakra just as a snake dropped down to his eye-level to hiss and sway forth.

"Ah…Sasuke-kun…my sweet," cooed a disgusting voice. "What an absolute delight to find you here. You seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth as of late."

Orochimaru entered the clearing smiling sickeningly as he ate Sasuke with his eyes.

Sasuke ignored him.

"You look troubled, Sasuke-kun. What seems to be the problem?"

Orochimaru stared at the unresponsive boy before him and smiled. His silence wasn't going to deter him. Now that he knew Sasuke was so easy he was much more motivated to try.

"Could it be the rumors circling around? Do you want to know who let the cat out of the bag?"

Sasuke looked at him condescendingly. "_You_ know?"

"Indeed I do. Are you interested, Sasuke, my dear?"

"Who was it, then?"

Orochimaru leered at him, his saliva slickened tongue coming out grotesquely to lick his mouth. "Oh, it's not that simple, Sasuke-kun. If you want to know…then I should be compensated…right?" He said moving to stand in front of Sasuke, who looked up at him. But as soon as Orochimaru unbuttoned his top trouser button Sasuke, all too-quick on the uptake let out a violent chidori stream which Orochimaru barely avoided.

"Fuck off," he snapped.

"What is your reason for protesting?" Orochimaru asked testily. "Don't pretend you have morals or scruples of any kind, Sasuke dear...If you can fuck your own brother..."

Sasuke snapped.

Grabbing a hold of Orochimaru's top he slammed him into the tree and was about to deliver a punch when Orochimaru suddenly transformed into Itachi. Caught off guard, Sasuke didn't deliver the blow and pseudo Itachi smiled.

"Is that it? Oh, so easy to read. So that's all I needed to do to get your body, Sasuke-kun? Play off your weakness for Itachi?" he said pressing into Sasuke's body. He moved so that his mouth was right next to Sasuke's ear and whispered, "It was the ANBU. It was tough to break his mind and procure the information but I managed. He died afterwards though, due to the seal in place…a pity. I wanted to drag all the details out of him. For example…how exactly did you ride Itachi? Would you care to demonstra-argh!"

Fake Itachi looked at Sasuke in surprise, a trickle of blood running down his mouth, then looked down to see Sasuke's chidori sword running through him as the crackling noise sounded about them.

"Change back, you mother fucker," Sasuke said balefully as he thrust his sword in deeper.

"Says…the brother fucker!" he rasped, grimacing in anger of the treatment as he divided into a couple dozen writhing white snakes.

Sasuke spun round, expecting Orochimaru to re-form soon. And sure enough-

"That was hardly necessary, Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru sniffed petulantly as he looked down at the wound near his stomach. "I really don't see your problem. What is it you want? Power? I can offer you that…if you desire it…"

Sasuke didn't. And his expression clearly said so.

"Then tell me what will persuade you, Sasuke. I thought Itachi had no choice because Madara and the Elders threatened you'll but then if it was forced… you wouldn't have enjoyed it, right? You would have hated it. So tell me the secret; What made you enjoy having sex with Itach-?"

"RASENGAAAANNNNNN!"

Sasuke and Orochimaru were both completely caught off guard as a bright blur whizzed past and collided head on with Orochimaru.

Rising from a cloud of smoke was the ever energetic always loud Uzumaki Naruto!

He stood up and brandished an accusing finger at Sasuke.

"Where the hell have you been, bastard?"

Sasuke would much rather die than ever admit this to anyone but he was kind of happy to see the dumbass.

"Around, loser. What's it to you?" he smirked, watching with sadistic pleasure as Orochimaru clutched his bleeding side in pain.

"Sakura's been worried sick, you jerk! Am I going to have to drag your misogynistic ass back or what?"

Sasuke frowned. "What?"

"Sakura said it today! That you were a… misogynist or a…misanthropegenist or something."

Sasuke snorted. "Misanthropist, you dumbass."

"Yeah, whatever. Are we going or what?"

Orochimaru was left to gape after the two retreating teenagers and cursed. These wounds were hardly life-threatening but it hurt so much! He guessed he wasn't as young as he used to be. Flopping down he stared up the canopy and clutched his side with one hand, the other spread out on the forest floor, moaning his failure with the tasty Uchiha…when a shadow loomed overhead and before he could blink a katana was thrust mercilessly into his hand, pinning him to the ground.

He cried out in pain and looked up to see Itachi Uchiha looking chillingly murderous.

"Orochimaru," he said in a voice so deep and deadly serious Orochimaru paled, not even daring to cry out at the stinging pain and the dangerous amount of blood he was losing in his hand, "There are a few things I want to ask you regarding the gathering last night."

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TBC


	5. Loyalty slaughter

A/N: Merry Christmas! Although, there's really nothing Merry about this chapter. I hope you enjoy it!

Thank you for the reviews!

Warning: Some MaduIta. BTW for this fic the Madara looks like the younger version; the one who fought Hashirama.

...

Orochimaru had never actually seen Itachi mad. Even on the battlefield Itachi was emotionless, systematically obliterating the enemy making him seem not so much a heartless killer but more of a robot, programmed to carry out a task assigned to them, no more no less.

But here was proof Itachi was human because for once, he was showing emotion. Orochimaru found the situation humorous. To see Itachi this bent out of shape was a delight.

Orochimaru used the art of substitution to free himself. He appeared behind Itachi, nursing his hand.

Itachi turned around calmly, looking both impassive and intimidating.

"Are you a sadist, Itachi-kun?" Orochimaru asked licking his wound. "I hope you were more gentle with darling Sasuke-kun."

Before Orochimaru could so much as blink, he was kicked into a tree and when he opened his eyes he found himself staring at the mangekyou.

In the next instant he was no longer in the woods, or so it seemed. He was in a pitch black world which was eerie and deathly silent. There was no perspective and Orochimaru had the odd feeling of constantly losing his equilibrium since he had no visible foothold or ground on which to stand.

Orochimaru smiled in admiration. "Already I can tell hand seals are of no use. Excellent. What high level occular jutsu. So this is the infinite Mangekyou."

There was no reply. Orochimaru looked around but there was nothing to see.

"There really is no need for this. I don't stand to lose anything if I tell you what happened last night. As I recall, I issued an invitation to you but it seemed as though you couldn't make it?"

Actually, Orochimaru knew Itachi would never come, even if he had no other engagements because Orochimaru's little parties were always a little dodgy; full of the shady Konoha shinobi that like Madara were unscrupulous and hardcore. Still, it didn't hurt to try.

Madara had attended though, if just to drink.

_Orochimaru spotted Madara sitting at the back of the room, resting his legs on a table languidly as he downed a bottle of sake._

_He looked up sharply when Orochimaru approached and laughed depreciatingly._

_"Ah, the snake. Look," he said pointing the bottle at his lap. "My hair is so long I can sit on it."_

_Orochimaru smiled wryly and sat down next to him. "I can do that too."_

_Madara seemed unimpressed. "My hair is spikier."_

_Orochimaru smiled insincerely, already impatient with the man's antics. "So, Itachi-kun did it in the end."_

_At the time, he had no idea what it was that Itachi did, he just knew that because Itachi had procured the powers and won the war it logically follows that he carried out whatever orders he was given, however displeased with them he had seemed. He was hoping Madara assumed he had overheard everything clearly and would let something slip, but it was not to be._

_"How is your tongue so long?" Madara inquired, seeming genuinely interested._

_Orochimaru fixed him with a weary expression. Madara was not drunk, that was for certain. He just didn't want to tell Orochimaru anything. Although, if that was the case then Madara would have prevented the snake from listening to the whole thing in the first place. Then...he was just messing with him?_

_"How are you immortal?" he fired back._

_Madara smiled. "Itachi-kun," he imitated Orochimaru, sticking his tongue out in a puerile manner, "and Sassssuke-kun are about to find out."_

_Orochimaru sat up straighter. "Oh? How come?"_

_Madara could not have possibly laughed in a more belittling way. "Oh? How come?" he mimicked again. "Aw, he asks so eagerly like I'm actually going to tell him." he looked at Orochimaru simperingly for a while then snapped, "This has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with you."_

_Orochimaru had to resist the urge to strangle him. "Immortality is my business."_

_"Give it up. You're not an Uchiha." he sniffed haughtily but Orochimaru got the impression he was still being mocked because Madara took a very dainty sip with his pinky out. _

_What the hell is wrong with this man? _

_The answer to that was most probably that he had lived too long and now idiotic things seemed to amuse him. This could have all been a big game to him. _

_"I think you're just playing with him." Orochimaru always had the feeling that Madara didn't like Itachi, for some reason._

_Madara looked amused at that and after a sidelong glance at him he asked, "Why does nobody believe I just wanted to stop the war?"_

_"Because you were born for war."_

_"Oh, the truth of that statement." Madara answered a bit distantly. "You really don't know what happened, do you? And after sending your damn snake too. Oh, but it was so obvious. You're an idiot."_

_Orochimaru bristled but decided not to respond having sensed a change in Madara's demeanor._

_"This sake is good," Madara said, finishing the last of the second bottle. "But this party," he said standing up and looking around at the dozen or so motley guests, "could do with a bit of livening up. What say?"_

_Orochimaru looked up at Madara boredly, "And what did you have in mind?"_

_"You want to know what happened with Itachi and Sasuke? Let's see if you can find out." Madara jerked his head in the direction of a man who was groping a drunken giggling girl and said, "One of the ANBU who witnessed everything. He has a seal in place that according to the Elders is impregnable. Now that's a pretty bold claim and I'd like to test its validity. Up for the challenge?"_

_"One of the ANBU? Wasn't it top-secret?"_

_"They were needed."_

_"And the Elders?"_

_Madara signed in frustration. "Useless, as it turned out. Not that I expected much, but it seems he only responds if his precious Sasuke is in any kind of harm, even," he sounded repulsed, "psychological harm."_

_Was it just Orochimaru or was there actual jealousy in Madara's tone? Although Madara's response wasn't really an answer he decided to move on to more important questions now that Madara was actually answering sensibly._

_"Didn't you threaten to torture him?"_

_"Itachi caught on that I bluffing. He was vigilant and found out the conditions stipulate that optimum physical health is a requirement."_

_"For what?"_

_Madara smiled. "Now I'm giving it all away, aren't I? If you want to know, just break the seal." He gestured once more to the shinobi who was at the moment vigorously occupied with the girl who was no longer giggling. _

_Orochimaru eyed him. "And what if I manage to get it out of him?"_

_"Well, then...things should get interesting," Madara shrugged carelessly. "For the record, I don't think you can but if you do, well, it hardly matters to me. And things will go better if their relationship is ruined."_

_Intrigued, Orochimaru licked his lips in anticipation. _

_And so began a very twisted game. Orochimaru invited everyone there to have a go, after restraining the ANBU who was too drunk and tired after his exhibitionist exploits with the girl to properly fight back. At first, he was pretty easy-going about the situation laughing with everyone else as they prodded him playfully like a piñata. But then things quickly escalated into a more sadistic perverse direction and the guests used increasingly dangerous jutsu in their determination to break the seal. The ANBU then tried to fight back but this was met with angry opposition. A demented sort of mob mentality had taken over and they were adamant that they find out this secret that Orochimaru promised was worth discovering. _

_Finally, it was_ _Orochimaru's turn with the half-dead Shiobi and he already had dozens of ideas how to break the seal. The ANBU tried several times to divulge the secret of his own will but his tongue immediately sealed itself and then Orochimaru had to undo that before proceeding. In the end there was one forbidden jutsu he used which seemed to work at least a little; the ANBU stuttered at the top of his voice some disjointed words that were difficult to understand as he spasmed pitifully but Orochimaru paid no heed and listened raptly. _

_Then...abruptly, Orochimaru and everyone else stopped. After shouting a few more words that were enough to satisfy their lust for a dirty secret, the ANBU had died. _

_Everyone, not knowing the details or the seriousness of the man's involvement with the matter, thought he had just fainted from all the alcohol he had drunk. They weren__'__t even paying attention to him anymore. The sharks had received their pound of flesh. _

_Who could believe it?_

_Itachi Uchiha, the pride of the legendary Uchiha clan, had sex with Sasuke Uchiha the equally well known and talented shinobi, to get the mangekyou. _

_The war seemed to have been forgotten in light of this shocking claim. And not only that, had the ANBU tried to say that the little brother had, at one point, enjoyed it?_

_How scandalous._

_Orochimaru heard the whispers about him and could not bring himself to join in. This was something that simply astounded him. At first he couldn't believe it but it made such sense with all his earlier information. He turned to look for Madara, but he seemed to have the party at some point._

Orochimaru was shocked back into reality as he hit the ground of the forest hard. Blinking he looked around. He was alone and he didn't sense Itachi's chakra. The boy was gone.

But what had just happened? Had Itachi somehow read his mind? It wasn't a mind transfer technique or anything of the sort...it was something much more subtle and sinister than that. Orochimaru hadn't meant to think about last night in such great detail, nor could he even remember such detail but somehow within the Tsukyomi Itachi had induced a photographic replay of last night and infiltrated his memories, procuring whatever information he wanted to find.

A formidable jutsu indeed. And it seems its' powers were only just being discovered.

But more importantly, if he didn't get to the hospital soon, this blood loss could be dangerous.

696969696969696969696969

Sasuke blurred past the trees feeling much better with the wind whipping around him. The dangerous speed he was running at was almost therapeutic. He was disappointed seeing the village only a few feet away. He needed to run some more.

"I said WAIT, you bastard!"

Sasuke was caught by surprise as Naruto grabbed his haori to turn him around, having forgotten Naruto was even with him.

"Geez, must everything be a competition?"

Sasuke raised a superior eyebrow. "_You're_ telling me this? I wasn't even trying to compete, you loser."

"Oh, what's your big hurry then?"

"This is my speed," Sasuke said haughtily. "We can't all travel as slow as you."

"Oh, yeah? Then let's see who gets to the top of the Hokage mountain first-?"

"Naruto," Sasuke interrupted seriously. "Why did you attack Orochimaru?"

Naruto didn't seem surprised at the question. His face visibly soured though.

"Everyone's talking about this crap...It's really annoying me...Sakura-chan too...she beat up a few people too..."

Naruto looked up with his determined "I'm-going-to-be-Hokage" look.

"I don't believe that bullshit, Sasuke. I know you and I know Itachi, I dunno where they got that crazy idea but...yeah...just..."

Sasuke looked at Naruto wondering if he should tell him and also wondering how Naruto didn't believe it. Nobody actually questioned the reliability of the rumor, everyone had just repeated it simply believing that it was true. Fugaku sure as hell hadn't said "No! My Son(s) would never do such a thing!"

"Naruto...I don't know everything that's being said, but the part about me having sex with Itachi..."

Naruto looked at Sasuke, earnest and ignorant and Sasuke faltered for a second.

But the second passed. Sasuke wanted to know what loyalty was.

"...It's true."

696969696969696969696969696

Madara let out a groan as he was slammed back into a wall.

He looked at the angry boy before him and smiled in evil delight.

"Why so agitated, Itachi?"

"What are you planning?" he bit out.

Madara, given that he was facing one of the top three most dangerous shinobi in Konoha and a livid one at that, was remarkably calm. He reached out a hand and trailed his fingers through Itachi's bangs, marveling at their texture and how well the color perfectly complimented Itachi's pale complexion.

Itachi jerked his face away but otherwise kept his dominating stance, not relinquishing the hold on Madara's t-shirt.

Madara seemed perfectly content with this, however and reached out a hand to cup the back of Itachi's neck and pull him closer so that their faces were only inches apart.

"To do my nails this afternoon?" he answered lazily.

"Madara," Itachi ground out, closing his eyes in anger. When he opened them, his sharingan was activated.

"Heh. Cute." Madara took in the sight. "You know Itachi, when you actually show your emotions you look very young...and sexy." he leaned forward to inhale the scent of Itachi's hair.

Itachi didn't move. "What is going on with our mother?"

Madara frowned at the word "our." Of course Itachi meant Sasuke... and this obsessive attitude of Itachi's was really grating on Madara.

He didn't think Itachi actually cared about his mother, just that he was worried Sasuke might be affected by it. It was the same with their parents. When Itachi had informed Madara he knew that he couldn't actually torture Sasuke and Madara had moved swiftly to plan B; threatening the lives of their parents, Itachi seemed more concerned with how Sasuke would take it than his parents' actual lives.

Or was it? Itachi wasn't that cold-hearted...was he?... and nobody could be that obsessed with their younger brother, right? If he was, he would have jumped at the opportunity to sleep with Sasuke, right?

He didn't quite understand it but when they were still negotiating, every time that Itachi would say no or mention that it was a "vile" or "depraved" act, Madara loved it and would memorize the words.

Madara raked his hand from Itachi's neck to the small of his back and pulled Itachi against him.

"You really want to talk about your mother right now?"

Itachi thrust his katana into Madara's heart, which would have immediately killed a normal person but it simply went right through Madara.

"You're not even trying, Itachi," Madara taunted, gripping the back of Itachi's neck painfully and pulling his face up. "I'll tell you what-you can picture him, then."

Itachi looked at Madara seemingly thrown by that statement but before he could respond Madara crushed his lips against Itachi's, holding him firmly by his hair and waist. Madara hated that look he saw on Itachi's face at his words. He couldn't think about anything when kissing Itachi other than that expression he made just now.

He pulled away in anger that he could not explain and pushed Itachi on to the floor, getting on top of him and pinning his arms to the side.

"You have been picturing him, haven't you, Itachi?" He accused coldly. "Since that night, you-"

But he stopped because he saw that he had angered Itachi to the point of him using the Mangekyou. He didn't want a battle right now. Now was not the time to see whose mangekyou was stronger.

Madara signed and got off, kneeling next to Itachi and looked ahead at nothing.

Itachi sat up, glanced at Madara once and then deactivated his sharingan.

"About your mother-maybe you should start saying goodbye."

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TBC


	6. Phoenix bonds

Naruto is not mine.

Warnings: MaduIta but it can also be regarded as SasuIta, depends on your perspective really. I'm really surprised there's so much MaduIta in this. I usually don't like any pairing with Itachi other than Sasuke but I guess after seeing Lily's pictures, the idea grew on me.

harmonyopc - thank you. Your words encouraged me to write this fast.

Love Everlasting - haha. Foreshadowing maybe? Well, I just like the number 69 but maybe...we'll see. The brothers are still in an early developmental stage. ( I think )

Cburns24 - Thanks! I'm flattered that you did that.

...

:::::

The branches of the Oak tree they were standing on were extremely thick. It was of a grayish brown color. Sunlight filtered through but there was no glare. It was quiet and idyllic. There was a blue jay on the next tree.

Sasuke took note of all these mundane things as he waited for the dumbstruck look to leave his best friends face. (Why, again, was this moron his best friend?)

Sasuke made an impatient sign. It was still a few more minutes before he finally got a response.

"WHAT?" The blue jay took off in fright.

Naruto spun around and was about to start running, "I'M GOING TO KICK HIS ASS!"

"What-what the hell!" Sasuke grabbed Naruto's sweater to prevent him from leaving. "Kick whose ass?"

"Itachi's!"

Sasuke gaped in disbelief. "For what?"

"Eh?" Naruto looked at Sasuke in confusion. Sasuke looked back in equal confusion.

"Am I missing something?"

"A brain, I think!" Sasuke replied angrily. "He hasn't done anything wrong!"

Naruto was once again struck with this information and Sasuke, sensing this would take some more time, sat down and rubbed his forehead. He didn't know how Naruto had the ability to turn a tragedy into an annoyance within a few seconds.

"So then-so then-" Naruto struggled to get the words out. "You were willing?"

Sasuke looked up in surprise. "Are they saying he raped me?"

"Well, no...but, argh! This is confusing. You said that it's true that you and Itachi had sex but that Itachi didn't do anything wrong. So...you were okay with having sex with him?"

"Are they not mentioning the reason behind it?"

"A reason? Um...no, not that I heard."

Great. So basically all that was getting around anymore was the fact that Itachi and he had sex and he had enjoyed it. No wonder Fugaku was so mad and seemed surprised that Sasuke had the mangekyou. That still doesn't excuse what that bastard said though, Sasuke thought angrily.

"In order to get the mangekyou to stop the war."

Naruto sat down as well, looking ahead with his mouth slightly open. "You're kidding me." he said in an uncharacteristically hushed voice.

"Er-Sasuke, are you sure you haven't been played? It seems pretty stupid-"

Normally Sasuke would have treated Naruto to his most supercilious look at that comment but he couldn't. Naruto was still beside him. Even when he thought Itachi and Sasuke had done it for no reason he didn't say a single thing against Sasuke and he really appreciated it.

"Itachi has the ultimate Mangekyou. We won the war, you moron."

Naruto seemed uncomfortable. "Well...yeah, but...we would've won anyway, right? Everyone knew we had the stronger fighters. They're numbers were just greater. And I can't wrap my head around the fact that Itachi would agree to this-"

"It's more complicated than that, Naruto. Itachi did what he could to prevent it."

Naruto didn't seem so convinced. "I don't know. You always have a choice."

But they didn't have a choice, right? Sasuke's option was to do it or let his parents be killed. Although, he really did it to prevent Itachi from fighting Madara. But then...would Madara have actually gone through with it? Would he have really killed his parents? That _would_ start a massive in-fight amongst the Uchiha and then Konoha Shinobi would certainly get involved and now...thinking about it...actually Madara would never be so stupid as to compromise the war for that, right? Was it an empty threat in the end? Was that why Madara was rushing things?

Sasuke signed. Did it matter anymore?

"It's already done."

"So it's actually true? You," Naruto made a face, "got on your hands and knees and begged him-"

"What? No! Nothing like that happened! There was no begging!" Oh, god, he seriously hoped there was no begging. He wasn't even sure what he had shouted in those last few minutes. But the hands and knees thing was definitely a fabrication; that at least he was certain of.

Naruto looked away chuckling slightly. "But…you're okay?" he asked, the concern in his voice was sincere and Sasuke, suddenly feeling touched, had to turn his face away.

He had never been normal about the entire situation in the first place. Sasuke was even scared to think too much on it; what it meant that he was more angry that Madara and the ANBU were watching rather than the fact that he was forced to have sex with Itachi, or what it said about him that he was happier that Itachi would rather let the war continue than force Sasuke into doing something he did not want to, than he was when the war actually ended. And now that it was over the reason he had been avoiding Itachi was not because he was traumatized (is that the normal response? Sasuke didn't think there was anyone to ask about this kind of thing) but more because he was embarrassed as hell that he had been so...vocal.

"Yeah, Naruto," he said quietly, "I'm fine."

::

::

"About your mother- maybe you should start saying goodbye."

Itachi didn't even blink.

Madara didn't find it surprising. Itachi had probably guessed his mother was not going to make it.

"What do you want, Madara? You forced me to have sex with my brother-"

"Hey! I think we all enjoyed that, let's be honest-"

"You're killing my mother."

"And where," Madara drawled blowing on his nails in a callous manner, "Is the evidence for that?"

"You let the rumor spread-"

"Technically, that was Orochimaru."

"You seem unable to leave me alone."

"Are you saying you don't enjoy my company?" he gasped.

"What is it you want?"

"What is it _you _want, Itachi? You wanted the war to end, it has ended. You have this freaky obsession with Sasuke and I allowed you two to get...how shall I put it...intimately acquainted? You didn't want Sasuke to get hurt, he's not. You wanted Sasuke to obtain mangekyou, he has."

Itachi looked at Madara apathetically. "Freaky obsession?"

"Yeah, you care to an abnormal degree. No one protests _that _much. Honestly, I made it so easy for the both of you to agree to it but you were still against it and now that its' over you're still worrying over it! I think you just want to drag this out for as long as you can."

"You see what you want to see, Madara."

"Am I wrong? You could have just resumed your relationship and acted like nothing happened. Or even spoken about it and dealt with it but instead you've been avoiding him since then, haven't you? Feel free to contradict me."

"I don't know how to look at him anymore." Itachi muttered.

Madara narrowed his eyes. "Meaning you're too ashamed to or you can't look at him as your brother since you have now seen him as a lover?"

Madara crossed his arms and signed. The brat was ignoring him.

Madara made two shadow clones and henged one into Sasuke and the other into Itachi.

Itachi frowned at him, warning him with that look but Madara just shook his head and wordlessly directed Itachi to lean against the wall and then sat down next to him.

"Just watch."

Pseudo-Itachi cupped Sasuke's face and leaning down slightly, he languidly slid his tongue inside fake-Sasuke's mouth. A very tangled intimate kiss ensued while Madara watched the real Itachi quietly. Itachi, for his part, said nothing and made no indication that he was feeling anything about this display. Still, Madara noted he didn't turn his eyes away.

Fake Itachi pulled away and nudged Sasuke down on his knees. Clone Sasuke needed no more instructions as he slowly slipped clone Itachi's length down his throat, moaning as he did so. He pulled back and ran his tongue up the length of fake Itachi's cock, looking challengingly at the real Itachi as he did so.

Madara looked at the boy next to him who was very obviously hard.

"The latter, then."

But Itachi wasn't paying him any attention, choosing instead to train his eyes on the clone of his little brother. Fake Sasuke smirked evilly at Itachi and with a cocky sort of ease he got to his feet and approached Itachi who did nothing to move away. The clone Itachi disappeared in a puff of smoke. The remaining clone was making its' intentions very clear by wrapping an arm around Itachi's neck and leaning down slowly. Itachi, Madara was a bit surprised to see, was not protesting the clones' desires. When their lips connected Itachi didn't close his eyes but allowed this version of his little brother to mould their lips and tongues closer together. Sasuke climbed on top of Itachi's lap and pulled Itachi closer with his arms.

Madara was just a bit shocked. He had expected Itachi to attempt to kill him again by now.

"Itachi?" Madara asked as the boy in question just continued to look at the clone that was now nuzzling his face in Itachi's lap.

There was a knock on the door.

"Madara? Is Itachi in there? I need to talk to him."

Madara didn't know if he was more amused or shocked that Itachi didn't seem to want to stop even though his father was outside the door and asking for him.

In fact, Itachi just threaded his fingers through fake Sasuke's spiky hair as he began to lick Itachi sensually with half-lidded eyes. Itachi trailed his fingers down the side of Sasuke's face and with his thumb and forefinger gripping Sasuke's jaw, he gently opened Sasuke's mouth and slipped a finger inside. Pseudo Sasuke sucked his finger with the same zeal as before and then slowly took in Itachi's length, sucking at it indulgently.

A harder knock sounded. "Madara?" Fugaku called.

"Shall I let him in since you don't seem to care?" Madara asked incredulously.

Itachi shook his head, too concentrated on watching this clone of his little brother to bother glancing at Madara. Madara himself had to admit he'd rather watch this than speak to Fugaku but he was extremely pissed that Itachi had somehow managed to turn what was supposed to be a humiliating experience into a pleasurable one. So he dispelled his jutsu and Itachi finally looked at him, his expression akin to boredom.

"Satisfied?" Itachi signed, righting his pants as he willed his erection away.

Madara raised an eyebrow at that indifferent reaction. "Me?"

"This is what you seem to delight in. Watching Sasuke and I together."

Madara laughed at him. "And you're such a co-operative boy that you just did it for my sake? Please. You lust after Sasuke."

Itachi closed his eyes in what seemed to be penitent self-reproach. "I wanted to see...apparently I can look at him that way."

Madara watched Itachi carefully as he ran a frustrated hand through his bangs. "And let me guess... you're not going to do anything about it?"

Itachi suddenly glared at him hatefully and Madara blinked at Itachi's revertion. "He is my _brother_, not my lover. This might have been normal in your time but I can't stop feeling as though I've betrayed him by looking at him that way. _This_ was different. This was not actually Sasuke. It was a means to establish what my feelings are because until I realize them, Sasuke and I won't be able to have any kind of relationship. He doesn't need to lose a brother just because I started to look at him differently after what you forced us into."

Madara snorted. "This sounds like the ninja handbook. Be calm, analyze the situation and decide on the best course of action."

Itachi spared him a scornful look, which Madara seemed to be amused by before he went to get the door since Fugaku had been banging on it for a while now.

"Itachi!" Fugaku said as he was finally allowed in. "I thought you were here. There's something I need to-" he trailed off as he spotted something. When Itachi turned to look he found Madara had henged into Sasuke again. He raised his chin and wiggled his fingers in greeting.

Fugaku visibly colored at the sight of him.

"Hello, father." Madara smirked.

Fugaku ignored him and turned to Itachi. "I have something to discuss with you."

Itachi just looked at him, clearly waiting for him to start first.

"Let's go back to our house, Itachi."

"What's wrong with right here, father?" Madara smirked walking up next to Itachi and wrapping his arms around Itachi's right arm. Fugaku's eyes bulged comically at that. Itachi, utterly jaded with Madara's antics, just let him.

Fugaku appeared to be fighting a war of the worlds within himself. "Stop that behavior at once, Sasuke." he rumbled in his deep voice.

The henged Sasuke's smile only seemed to widen. "Why?" he asked innocently in a tone that revolted Itachi. "Itachi doesn't seem to mind, father."

Itachi didn't know how exactly Fugaku could believe that this flirtatious clingy version could ever be Sasuke.

"Do not disgrace this family and our clan anymore than you already have." Fugaku spat coldly, looking directly at Madara.

"Sasuke," Itachi replied in a nanosecond, "has in no way disgraced our family or clan. What is it you want to speak to me about, father?"

Fugaku seemed angry with Itachi as well. "I have been willing to let your behavior slide but this is something you should be ashamed of as well, Itachi. The things I have been hearing...put yourself in my position...this is not an easy thing to deal with...The least you could do is stop encouraging him. And to that end...I think it is best that you and Sasuke maintain your distance from each other for a while...also, I have arranged for the two of you to be married."

Itachi and Madara both raised their eyebrows as far as it could go with that news that was totally out of left field. Then Madara suddenly spun Itachi to face him and said, "Isn't that great, Nii-san? We're going to get married!" and planted a kiss on Itachi.

The look on Fugaku's face was priceless. Even Itachi had a hard time maintaining a straight face after that. Madara was very pleased with himself. When he had briefly been Itachi's sensei at a time where the youth regarded him as his mentor he had counted the times Itachi had smiled or laughed. There were only five times.

But Fugaku was not at all amused. "NOT TO EACH OTHER!" he bellowed, his sharingan activated out of fury but then he saw the deep purple chakra that was most definitely not Sasuke's.

"What the hell? Madara? What are you doing?"

"Geez, took you long enough, old man." Madara said, finally letting go of Itachi and changing back.

"You think this situation is funny?" Fugaku demanded, outraged.

"Not especially but yes, a little. There have been funnier things. For example...the look on Itachi's face when Sasuke started-"

"Father," Itachi interrupted. "What are you talking about marriage for?"

"I have found two very decent girls who are quite willing to marry you and Sasuke. This whole thing should blow over soon-"

"What nonsense." Itachi point blank refused. "Father, think about what you are requesting. I understand that the situation has been taxing for you but getting us married to strangers is a ridiculous notion. And Sasuke is fifteen years old, father. It is not even legal for him to get married."

"Actually," Madara inserted his two cents, "Within the Uchiha clan getting married as soon as puberty hits is the norm. Due to our integration with Konoha and the Land of Fire, we have gradually changed our culture but I'm pretty sure in terms of the law, there is no issue."

Itachi shook his head. "The law is hardly the problem here. I wonder when everybody is going to stop disregarding our will? If I say no," Itachi glared at Fugaku, "Then you should respect my choice. I can't speak for Sasuke but I highly doubt you can persuade him either and don't you _dare _try to force him." Itachi threatened before he left the room.

Fugaku stared after Itachi, a little shocked at the way he had been spoken to.

Madara shook his head in mock concern and patted Fugaku on the shoulder. "Teenagers."

.

.

.

TBC


	7. Talk

"Let's tell everyone."

"No."

"They're going to assume the wrong thing then!"

"I don't care."

Naruto huffed, crossing his arms.

"I'm sleeping over at your house tonight," Sasuke informed Naruto.

Ignoring Sasuke's impertinent liberty, Naruto just nodded. "There's only one bed."

"Sleep on the floor, then." Sasuke ordered.

Naruto glared at him, eyes ablaze. Sasuke looked back tauntingly.

And before a minute passed, they were beating the crap out of each other.

:: :: ::

Sasuke got out of the shower, feeling pleasantly refreshed as he dried his hair with a white towel and joined Naruto on the bed. Naruto was leaning against the wall, eating out of a bowl of cup ramen.

"Want some?"

"Not hungry."

Naruto shrugged and continued to inhale the ramen.

The bed, Sasuke noted was quite soft, much softer than the one he had at home. Naruto's place was ten times more pleasant and warm than his home, although it was also ten times smaller and untidier.

Running his fingers through his damp hair, a strand caught his eye and he fingered it thoughtfully, remembering an old memory…

"_What is your favorite color, nii-san?"_

_A ten year old Itachi looked up from the scroll he was reading and considered the question. _

"_I don't think I have a favorite."_

"_You do! Everyone does!"_

_Itachi looked at him pensively and then smiled gently. "Well, I suppose I like the color of your hair, otouto. It's unusual and very beautiful. And neither mum nor dad has that color so I wonder how you got it.__"_

_Sasuke hadn't been expecting that answer. For some reason he had thought Itachi would say red or black. _

"_Really?"_

"_Yes," Itachi smiled down at his little brother. "I wish my hair were that color."_

"_Really?"_

_Itachi poked Sasuke in the forehead. "Why would I lie about it?"_

Sasuke signed and flopped down on the bed. Itachi had wanted something Sasuke had. It meant the world to him, when he was that age. He remembered taking such good care of his hair afterwards and even flipping it more than was necessary around Itachi after that and Itachi just laughed at Sasuke's antics of deliberately drawing attention to his hair.

A blonde eyesore intruded on his view of the ceiling.

"Let's get to sleep."

"Yeah."

They turned off the lights and settled down in the bed. They had an unspoken agreement that they would share the bed, even though it was a single bed. It was slightly tight but not uncomfortably so. In the darkness and silence they could only hear the peaceful lull of each other's breathing.

This was weird. In some ways, Sasuke thought, Naruto was more like a brother than Itachi was. Naruto and he had shared a bed and had taken baths together and fought against and alongside each other…although he supposed that was a given since they were part of the same cell. But Itachi and he had never done any of those things.

He and Itachi never fought the way Naruto and he did. Whenever they were mad at each other they would just ignore each other for a while and then sooner or later once one of them took the initiative to speak they would resume as if there had been no quarrel in the first place. But they seldom had any quarrels. Sasuke was always the one to get mad first, due to some petty issue and Itachi was usually the one to start speaking first.

And also, compared to Naruto, Sasuke and Itachi hardly ever touched one another. Naruto had no concept of personal space and was always flinging an arm over Sasuke's shoulder or getting in his face. Whenever Naruto got injured Sasuke was given the task of lugging him around but Sasuke had never supported Itachi…he couldn't recall that Itachi ever needed support. It was the other way around; Itachi was the one who tended to him when he was injured or when he couldn't walk on his own.

It was a diffusion of equality. Itachi was older than Sasuke by four years and the gap was always felt. Sasuke found himself wishing that Itachi was the same age as him. He found himself wishing Itachi had no concept of personal space. But Itachi was not a touchy feely person. Neither was Sasuke. They were too similar to one another.

"Um…so, what was it like?"

Sasuke blinked in the darkness. Strangely, he did not mind Naruto talking about it. He must have been curious.

"It was…better than you'd think."

A few minutes of silence past.

"But you'll are like, both guys…wasn't that…weird?"

"…More than us being guys…it was an issue of us being brothers."

"Right. Sorry."

"For what?"

"No…just…um."

Sasuke signed. "Actually, it hasn't really bothered me as much as one might think. A lot has changed but despite that I feel like the same person…just… I think about him a lot more now."

"Itachi…?"

"Yeah…like…random memories of when we were kids."

Naruto was silent for a while before he asked, "So…how did Itachi take it?"

Sasuke thought back to that moment. Itachi had remained inscrutable in the beginning but later when he was on top of Sasuke, he looked aroused and…beautiful, there was no other word for it. Itachi had been gripping his thighs really hard when he held him, almost violently as if he was taking his anger out on Sasuke and even when he moved inside of him…it was so…hard and …intense… '_Holy shit,'_ Sasuke thought, eyes widening with the realization; he was hard!

Sasuke turned on his side, his heartbeat hammering away at his chest. Why the hell was he hard? No, he knew perfectly well why he was hard; his imagination got a little overactive and glorifying for a second there.

"I…haven't really spoken to him since then." Sasuke said frantically thinking about all the disgusting things he could come up with.

"But tomorrow," Sasuke said resolutely. "Tomorrow I'm going to talk to him. Now go to sleep Naruto."

Naruto made a weird huffing sound. "Don't tell me what to do," he muttered.

Sasuke smiled at his friend and then frowned at his lower body. He buried his head into the soft pillow and willed himself to go to sleep.

_Tomorrow will be a better day._

:: :: :: :: ::

Sasuke woke up with a frown on his face, the harsh sun in his eyes and Naruto's heavy leg draped across his.

Hoisting himself up with his hand he glared down at the drooling idiot and threw him off the bed.

Naruto got to his feet in a ready to attack ninja pose. Then he took in Sasuke and his groggy defense turned into instant rage.

"What the hell, you bastard?"

Sasuke gave him an imperious look before settling down in a more comfortable position.

Naruto made the shadow clone hand seal.

:: :: :: :: ::

Sasuke made his way to his mother's ward, feeling much better after sleeping on a bed and kicking Naruto's ass this morning.

When he opened the door, he found that he was not the only visitor.

Madara was there. And so was Itachi.

Itachi looked up, and their eyes met.

Sasuke's step faltered somewhat before he strode inside, looking elsewhere.

Madara smiled in evil delight. "Look who's here." Itachi looked sharply at Madara, warning him wordlessly.

Sasuke frowned at the exchange.

"Oh, yes, Sasuke…" Madara drawled in a tone that suggested he couldn't care less about the answer, looking at Sasuke as he approached the hospital bed. "Have you figured out the abilities of your mangekyou yet?"

"I will," Sasuke said confidently, not looking at him. He looked at Mikoto, who seemed drained of life. Her face and arms were grey and appeared to have lost any and all fat within them, appearing emaciated. But the rest of her body was normal and healthy. When Sasuke activated his sharingan he could see that there was no chakra around Mikoto's arms and face but all the black chakra had conglomerated from the neck downwards and folded upon itself repeatedly like a black cloud. Also, upon his activation the black chakra seemed to push against the confines of its container. And Sasuke heard it again; a distinctive purr. Or some strange sound that came across as contentment.

"Well…I have matters to attend to," Madara said, smiling dementedly, not seeming to have noticed any disturbance within Mikoto or the chakra. And then to Sasuke's shock he wrapped his arms around Itachi's waist and pulled him against him, positioning his mouth next to Itachi's ear and whispering some words into them.

But Sasuke easily read his lips with the sharingan.

_Don't meddle any further, Itachi. It's beyond your abilities. _

Madara buried his head in the back of Itachi's neck, inhaling the scent of Itachi's hair before pushing away and leaving. As he walked past Sasuke he gave him a look Sasuke couldn't quite decipher. He had a twisted smile on that was both evil and condescending but his eyes looked furious, as if he hated Sasuke with his very soul.

But with Madara closing the door behind him with a resounding click Sasuke was hyper aware of Itachi's presence in the room. But Itachi wasn't leaving. Instead he took a seat on chair next to the bed.

So Sasuke sat down as well, on the chair that was on the opposite side of the bed.

After a few tense moments of silence Sasuke decided to be the one to break the silence between them.

"I hate him," Sasuke muttered. It came out a lot more childishly than he would have liked.

But that comment coaxed a small smile out of Itachi. "I hate him too, outoto," Itachi replied gently.

Sasuke's heart became just a little less constricted.

It was okay. Itachi wasn't retching at the prospect of having to talk to him. And more than that, he had said outoto, an endearment that Itachi rarely used now that they were older but it was a habit of Itachi's to use it, usually after they had had some brotherly squabble, to let Sasuke know that it was alright and he wasn't really mad anymore. It was a bit weird since this time it wasn't a fight but it had that same reassurance attached that things were fine or were...at least, heading that way.

Sasuke glanced at his brother and looked away. "He's up to something."

Itachi signed, sounding too old for his age. "Yes. It's extremely difficult to figure out what though. I've tried reading all the manuscripts available pertaining to this...but there are no mentions of such a thing and I think Madara has forged all the documents anyway...they look authentic but they're too obscure and unhelpful to be official. No one else could possibly know anything about this, either."

Sasuke sat up straighter. "I heard the Elders knew about this."

"Who told you that? Orochimaru?"

Sasuke gave a non-commital jerk of his head.

"Madara is an idiot. He thought by bringing them into this, I would be persuaded more easily than if it came from him alone. They previously knew nothing about this power or the requirements for it till Madara informed them...it is exclusive to Uchiha. Yet they had the arrogance to assume if the orders came from them I would obey since they rank equal with Tsunade-sama. Some even consider them to be more authoritative than the Hokage since they have been around much longer than any Hokage's term of office."

"What was their gain?"

Itachi looked at Sasuke like he had asked a very stupid question. "Power, Sasuke. Uchiha is under the jurisdiction of konoha. Why wouldn't they want to advance our abilities if it meant winning the war and securing the land of Skies power and land from then onwards?"

Right. Sasuke was sort of more focused on Itachi's voice than his words; so pleased was he that they were able to speak normally like this again he hadn't really registered his words, he just doled out a question that would require Itachi to speak some more.

But now he wished he had phrased a more intelligent query. Looking away to hide his light flush he said "We would have won the war eventually. It was just a matter of time."

"The Elders didn't want any more casualties. It was their logic that if the war could be stopped in a few days rather than a few weeks or months then that was the right course of action. Perhaps two individuals would... suffer but it was better than dozens dying. Premised on such black and white terms I had to agree it was the more pragmatic and beneficial choice."

"But you still refused."

Itachi looked at him in chagrin. "How could I accept Sasuke? When it was you..." Itachi trailed off and Sasuke himself looked away feeling very uncomfortable but also, warped though it may seem... happy at Itachi's words, because it was very clear what he was saying; Itachi would have chosen Sasuke's comfort over the lives of the villagers.

"Madara's motive is much less clear. I don't believe that a man like him would want to end the war. I fear it has nothing to do with our powers, either. Madara would not want to make me more powerful." Itachi looked at their mother with distant eyes.

"I owe you an apology."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "What for?"

Itachi looked at him cautiously. "I broke my promise. I said I would let you handle things." Itachi was being very delicate with his words as though he expected Sasuke to snap at any moment.

Oh. That.

Don't blush.

This was something Sasuke wanted to talk about anyway. This was something they needed to talk about.

"Why did you break your promise?"

"The full moon was fading. There was no time to go slowly. Forgive me, Sasuke."

Sasuke was quiet for a few moments before he decided to say it. "As you know," he crossed his arms into a more rigid stance. "I didn't really mind."

An awkward silence fell upon them after that and Sasuke was regretting voicing his thoughts.

"Did you… take an aphrodisiac?" Itachi asked quietly.

Sasuke closed his eyes and answered as levelly as he could. "No...I didn't, Itachi." It would have been endlessly easy to blame it on a drug but he just didn't want to.

"I thought that perhaps it was your way of giving the middle finger to Madara."

Sasuke looked at him in amusement. "My way of giving the middle finger?"

Itachi elaborated. "That because of your stubborn and rebellious personality, instead of feeling ashamed or embarrassed and giving him the satisfaction of psychological control, you acted as though you enjoyed it by way of defiance."

"You…have really thought about this, haven't you? But no, Itachi- I wasn't "acting" anything. I guess... that's just the way I am when it comes to sex."

Something about Sasuke's tone caused Itachi to look up. "I'm sorry, Sasuke...I didn't mean to make you feel bad about it-"

"No. No, that's what everyone thinks right? That I'm a slut who doesn't mind if their partner is their own brother as long as I get to have some fun." Sasuke looked directly at Itachi. "It's true, after all."

Itachi looked pained. "Sasuke, you are still a child. This was not something you should have ever had to be exposed to. No matter what...transpired that day...you should know that you were the victim."

"Itachi," Sasuke signed in annoyance. "I have fought in wars, I go out every day on missions knowing that I could die at any second. Oh, and if that isn't enough being _your_ brother makes a person mature really fast, trust me...I hardly think you can call me a child. You still think of me as a baby, always needing to be protected."

Itachi turned his head toward Mikoto though his eyes were far-away. "I wonder if you can understand, Sasuke...you are not just anyone to me. Yes, I do always feel the need to make certain you are alright...it's because you matter to me, not that I feel you're incapable of doing so yourself...perhaps you need to have a younger brother to understand?"

Sasuke didn't reply to that. It's not like he didn't appreciate it, he just…wanted Itachi to…not think of him as a brother for once.

"Did you enjoy it?" Sasuke asked quietly.

Itachi looked at Sasuke in shock.

But before Itachi could reply their mother's hand suddenly twitched. Both their heads snapped towards her at the movement and Sasuke went over to her side. Her eyes snapped open so suddenly Sasuke flinched back. They were fixed on Sasuke manically for about seven seconds before her eyelids began to droop and then close without further incident.

Sasuke looked at Itachi who stared at their mother for a second longer before exchanging a worried and confused look with Sasuke.

Mikoto's eyes had been pitch black. There was no white sclera and no defined iris or pupil either; the entire eye was black. They were eyes that belonged to a monster.

:: :: ::

"I request permission to leave the village for a few days, Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade frowned at the boy before her as she rested her chin on her palm and her ample bosom on the table.

"For what purpose?"

"I wish to collect information on Uchiha for personal reasons." Itachi answered formally.

"Your mother." Tsunade signed. The boy had his plate full. This and the other incident…

"Why didn't you come to me, Itachi?" Tsunade banged her fist down on the desk. "I heard about it from Orochimaru. I would have never allowed this! What right did those damn Elders have!"

Itachi looked at the Hokage expressionlessly.

"None. Ultimately, however it was Sasuke's decision…and mine."

Tsunade looked sadly at the tortured youth before her. Only nineteen…she pressed her fingertips to her forehead in frustration. Why is it that innocence was so short lived? She could not be proud of their victory when it came at the expense of two children…who will live for the rest of their lives with the consequences of their choice.

"If anything similar happens again, you come to me, understand?" Tsunade said fiercely.

Itachi bowed his head slightly.

"You have a source for this information outside of konoha?"

"I believe so."

"Very well." Tsunade said grimly. "When do you wish to leave?"

"Later today."

"And for how long will you be gone?"

"A week, at most."

Tsunade nodded, taking out the relevant paperwork and stamping her seal on the documents.

"Permission granted. I wish you luck."

Itachi bowed once again, took the paperwork and left in a blur.

::

Next chapter is already three quarters complete. I actually did that before this one! :X


	8. Shatter

Hello, my lovely readers! You can feel free to skip this little rant.

I shall just go through the motions; Naruto is not mine.

Warnings would be (sign) again ItaMadu (ItaSasu) Sorry, 'a single fragile rose' I just read your review today...I hope you'll forgive me. I'm quite shocked actually, that there is so much ItaMadu but see, I have no control over it! The story writes itself! I only intervene when I feel they go too far, like in this chapter Itachi had some inner dialogue and I let it be for a while before I suddenly became apoplectic and deleted the whole thing.

Hope you'll enjoy it!

:: :: :: ::

Sasuke was returning home after a long time. But a home was the last thing he thought of it as. His room and his belongings were here, that was all. Fugaku was not his father. (He had angrily decided) His mother wasn't here and there was no warmth or smell of homely food. The house was silent and due to its vast size it exuded quite a depressing atmosphere.

He had come home to collect a few things for staying over at Naruto's, assuming that his father wouldn't be home at this time of the day but as he walked past a long narrow corridor he heard the shuffling of papers behind the shoji screen door. He was about to flit past quietly but the door slid open and he was met with the unpleasant sight of Fugaku.

Fugaku activated his sharingan which led Sasuke to think he wanted to fight but then after a cursory glance at Sasuke he deactivated it and huffed in satisfaction. Sasuke frowned at the odd behavior and was about to walk away but Fugaku turned his back on him and said "Get inside."

Sasuke was half tempted to stick out his tongue and run, but quelling random urges was part of being a ninja and ignoring the childish desire, he just followed Fugaku inside.

Fugaku took a seat on the tatami mat, took out a bunch of papers and slid it on to the low desk. Still not looking at Sasuke, he demanded, "Sit."

"I'll stand." Sasuke said firmly but not impolitely.

But the atmosphere perceptibly changed after that assertion.

Fugaku slowly raised his gaze to fix Sasuke with what was supposed to be an intimidating gaze but Sasuke just raised an eyebrow in challenge.

"You refuse to mature past your disobedience." Fugaku said.

"Since when is exercising the rights of free will disobedience?"

The air was thick and heavy. Sasuke thought a clash at this point was inevitable.

But a moment past and Fugaku shuffled the papers. "These are the legal documents for your marriage certification. The girl's name is Maka. She is, of course, an Uchiha. She is slightly older than you but I don't think that will be much of a problem. She is an excellent medic nin and luckily for you, she disbelieves the...things being said."

Sasuke was incredulous at first and then just plain pissed off.

Fugaku took one look at Sasuke's defiant face and held up a hand. "Before you dismiss this idea, think first. It is not easy to rid oneself of a bad reputation. Maka is a well bred lady...clearly, you have urges at this age and I do not fault you for that...however your...feelings would be better invested in a normal relationship. I do not pretend to understand what sort of madness possessed you when you decided to...seduce Itachi but let this be your outlet. Leave Itachi alone."

Sasuke's head was bowed, letting his bangs obscure his face so that he wouldn't reveal the sharingan and provoke Fugaku into a physical confrontation.

"And how is it," Sasuke bit out, "that you are so sure that _Itachi_ wasn't the one who seduced _me_?"

Fugaku scoffed, not skipping a beat. "Please."

Sasuke looked up, fixing him with a black gaze. "It was not rhetorical. I want an answer to that question."

Fugaku glared back. "Itachi would never do something so repugnant! He has always thought of you fondly and...normally! But you have always had a sick obsession of following him everywhere and trying to be like him, imitating him and...and..."

Sasuke's mouth was open in outrage. "You're kidding me! Why the _hell _do you think I was trying to be like him? Because you only ever paid attention to him! How the fuck did I know, at that age when I was trying to win your affection that you don't want sons, you want fucking puppets and trophies! You only love Itachi more than me because he listens to every damn thing you say!"

"Enough!" Fugaku bellowed, standing up and upending the table with a lashing hand. "Obedience is part of it! And you will listen to me, Sasuke because I am your father and I know what is right for you, better than you do!"

Sasuke inclined his head mockingly. "Father? What father?" he said in an eerily light tone. "All I see is a dictator."

Sasuke expected that to be the trigger that would make Fugaku attack him but Fugaku looked at him coldly and said, "You have always felt that your way of thinking is the right way. Well, I'll tell you something boy, I have a heck of a lot more experience that you have had and still you have the arrogance to question my authority! Itachi is a thousand times better than you for he is sensible enough to know his limits and wise enough to respect his elders. Yes, you are right when you say that I paid more attention to Itachi, but that was because he did things worth paying attention to! He accomplished so many things while all you could do was trail after him and me, hoping to be like us, but you lacked the talent to do so! And now, I see...you are so bitter that you seek to corrupt him in the most inhumane of ways! I am ashamed...repulsed of the way you have turned out! And the only thing that repulses me about Itachi is that he stooped so low as to sleep with you!"

Sasuke wished he hadn't heard all that. He felt like he had been dealt a hundred blows but that he himself was immobilized and couldn't fight back.

Fugaku gave him one more withering glare before he left and slammed the door shut.

Sasuke looked around at nothing, in an empty home and let the silence engulf him, assisting the repeated mental assault of Fugaku's cutting words. Sasuke told himself not to care, he shouldn't care about a man who wouldn't even defend his son or ask him for his side of the story. Fugaku had just assumed that he was so _bitter _and uncontrollably horny he had just jumped Itachi! What the hell!

He fisted his hands in anger and was suddenly filled with the desire to burn this house to the ground. He paused at the sudden venomous thought and was soon filled with a child-like fear and insecurity that perhaps Fugaku was right; he did automatically seek to destroy the things that he hated; like a revenge-driven villain. He wanted the ANBU dead after their witness to the scene, he had destroyed a forest due to his anger with the situation, he had wanted Madara dead too, for smiling at him that night in a taunting manner like he had control over Sasuke. He didn't hate Itachi now, but there was certainly a time back when he was much younger where he despised Itachi for all the things that seemed to come easy to him...how could he be sure that was not the subconscious reason why he didn't mind having sex with Itachi...perhaps he did want to defame Itachi...?

But he had no such ill will towards Itachi that he could identify within himself!

Sasuke knew the outward reason why he agreed to have sex with Itachi but things were not that simple anymore. Why... was he feeling like he wanted to touch Itachi again? And not in a brotherly way...not in a brotherly way at all. And all of these...attempts at justification and puzzling over reasons and causes...did it matter at all? When Sasuke wanted what he wanted...ultimately he didn't give a damn about Fugaku or the rest of the world's opinion.

And he wanted Itachi.

And so Itachi was the only person whose opinion mattered.

Sasuke left the room and walked down the corridor.

And Itachi was still talking to him, right? Itachi didn't hate him. Their earlier conversation had been fine…if a little unsatisfactory. Why did his mother have to move at _that_ crucial juncture? The look Itachi gave him when he had asked if Itachi had enjoyed it said '_How can you even ask such a thing?_' but the curiosity was driving him crazy! He had to know that he wasn't the only one who felt like this! He had to have an answer…

Sensing a presence, Sasuke looked around to see Itachi who looked surprised to see him there.

"Sasuke? What's wrong?"

Sasuke blinked. Itachi was here...how..._convenient._

Moving forward, knowing that he would probably regret this later but too emotional to listen to rationality now he walked up to a bemused Itachi, grabbed him by the wrist and steered him towards his room not bothering to close the door behind them.

Still holding Itachi by the hand, he fell backwards on top of his bed and pulled Itachi down with him who quickly held himself up with his hands on either side of Sasuke's head.

Itachi looked down at Sasuke, asking him with his eyes what he was doing. Sasuke looked back seriously, holding his breath as the proximity between them was starting to make him nervous.

"Itachi," Sasuke said and stopped, looking at his brother thinking '_This is not a joke! You can't do this!'_ but ignoring it anyway. He licked his suddenly dry lips and swallowed...why was this so difficult? Was he scared of rejection? But despite their incriminating positions, Itachi was not moving away; he just continued to stare back at Sasuke and looked concerned.

He signed shakily and gripping the bottom of his t-shirt (he thought he saw a flash of realization on Itachi's face) he quickly removed his top. Itachi was about to say something or so he thought but when he looked up sharply Itachi seemed to stop. There was complete silence around them.

Sasuke slowly rested his hand on his stomach, his fingers curling from vulnerability, not taking his eyes off Itachi and Itachi didn't look away from Sasuke's eyes either.

"Touch me."

The words were clear, even though it was said quietly.

Itachi just looked at him as though nothing had been said. When Sasuke continued to stare at him in earnest, he exhaled quietly and looked away, frowning sadly.

Sasuke nodded his head once, as though he had prepared himself for that exact response and moved his hands to unbutton his trousers but in the blink of an eye, his hands were pinned to the sides of his head and held down firmly by Itachi's hands.

"I can't."

Sasuke looked at his elder brother expressionlessly.

"...Because we don't have an excuse this time?"

Itachi blinked once, but other than that gave no indication of his feelings. God, what Sasuke would give to know what he was thinking.

But Itachi did something Sasuke didn't expect at all. He leaned closer, just the slightest bit and smiled at Sasuke gently and a little sadly.

"Because, dearest one...You are my only brother in the world. Where anybody else can be my lover, you are more special than that."

Itachi leaned in and Sasuke's breath hitched but he just gave Sasuke a chaste kiss on the forehead and getting off smoothly, he left the room.

Sasuke didn't move from his position. He stayed like that looking ahead at nothing and then covered his eyes with the back of his palm. A single tear trickled down the side of his cheek.

:: :: :: ::

Madara was lying with his upper body off the side of his bed reading a scroll he held up over his head when the door to his room burst open and he barely had time to blink before it was slammed shut so hard the banging noise rang in his ears. The scroll was whacked aside and he was pulled fully on to the bed by the collar of his t-shirt.

He was surprised to see Itachi getting on top of him, still gripping the material of his clothes hard and using this leverage pulled Madara up, almost in his face and hissed in cold fury that left no question that the words were an ultimatum and not a request or open to any dissent.

"Change into Sasuke."

Madara smiled, his intuition already supplying the reason as to why Itachi would come to him; Madara was probably the only one who knew his shameful secret and also shadow clones were too vulnerable for what they were about to do and it was so easy to tell what exact intentions the Uchiha prodigy had in mind; it was written in his furious eyes.

So when Madara complied and henged he was ready for the ferocious ripping of his garments which Itachi skillfully accomplished with the aid of a kunai, purposefully making a clean slash diagonally across his abdomen. Sasuke's complexion was of a peachier disposition that Madara's which was borderline albino white and Madara had to admit that oozing red blood splayed across that skin tone was so fucking gorgeous he just might have to figure out a way to circumnavigate Itachi to make and watch Sasuke bleed.

Itachi's long fingers swiped across the blood on his stomach creating artistic finger trails down to his prominent pelvic bones where his hand gripped pseudo Sasuke's' hip in a vice like hold while the other hand crept around his neck to pull Madara up forcefully.

Madara loved this side of his former student. He didn't think anyone else actually knew this side of Itachi, where he becomes similar to Madara; urging to rape and ruin the things closest to him. He had only seen Itachi like this once before; when he was given a mission that included killing several children. After executing his assignment to perfection and handing in the report he had retreated to a secluded area and decimated the entire thing. It was then that Madara took an interest in mentoring the boy and was amazed at his formidable prowess and abilities. But Itachi had keen foresight even at that age and never revealed more of his personality than was strictly necessary to Madara, perhaps sensing the unholy interest and attraction Madara felt towards him after witnessing the darkness within Itachi. It was due to this interest that Madara (still) felt for the young boy that Itachi got away with so much around Madara. This, for example. Not to say Madara was not enjoying this rough treatment; his sadomasochistic tendencies were delighting in the violence his body was receiving but had anyone else asked him to henge into someone else they would have paid for the insult with their life.

But this was Itachi so he allowed himself to be pulled up harshly by the hair he was currently sporting that was, he noted with some dissatisfaction, much softer than his, despite being spiky as well. His tongue clashed with Itachi's before their lips even had a chance to meet and they warred with the saliva slickened appendages brutally. It was more of a fight than a kiss and this premise was solidified by Itachi pulling away to bite mercilessly on henged Sasuke's plump bottom lip which immediately bled and was promptly licked away as the lip was sucked into Itachi's mouth.

Oh, the fucking skill of this brat; Madara wanted to destroy him out of envy. But that would have to wait...till his lust was subdued.

Itachi ripped the remaining fabric off fake Sasuke's skin with his hands and while still biting down on Sasuke's lips he pushed at his shoulders, forcing Madara to lay down while further ripping his lips. Itachi took off Madara's pants and unbuttoned his own trousers before slipping three fingers inside his mouth and coating them. Madara loved the sight and decided to reciprocate the visual stimulus by sliding his own fingers into his mouth and made a show of thrusting them in and out. But Itachi just frowned in response to this and pinned Sasuke's hands together above his head with one of his hands as he slid the other down to prepare him.

"Why bother? I know you just want to take him." Madara said, feeling blood trickle down his chin. He had barely finished the sentence before Itachi's lips were upon him again and fingers were entering him. Madara pushed against them, welcoming the stinging pain but Itachi was extremely impatient and he barely got accustomed to the feel of his fingers before they were removed and Itachi was pushing into him. Itachi let go of Sasuke's hands to part his legs and where his nails dug into Sasuke's thighs they drew crimson blood which Madara noticed Itachi looking at lustfully.

Fuck. That hurt really bad. Madara didn't torture people sexually when he wanted something from them but now he was thinking...it was a pretty good torture method but he took it like a man as Itachi began to move roughly. Madara gripped Itachi's upper arms as he moved above him and used the hold to flip them over. Itachi's head hit the bed and for a while he watched his little brother move on top of him as he panted and moaned before he sat up and pulled the replica of the boy that had changed his life against him as their lower bodies slid sweatily against one another. His face was aligned with Sasuke's and his upper lip aligned with Sasuke's lower one as he panted against his brother's mouth in surreally intimate contact.

Itachi raked his nails across Sasuke's back and Madara, somewhat miffed returned the act in kind, with such force that even though Itachi was still wearing all his clothes and his nails caught the folds on the fabric he managed to draw blood. Itachi glared at Madara and he returned the death stare with equal passion. It was such a fucked up situation, Madara thought. Itachi didn't really want him but would deny himself Sasuke because he thought it was his duty. But-

"Aren't you betraying him anyway, by doing this?"

Itachi closed in eyes in emotion that Madara couldn't name but he didn't answer and they continued to move till they came. After which Itachi stared at pseudo Sasuke for a long time in which span Madara thought he was going to say something but he never did. Then he slowly pulled out, pushing Madara off of him and curled up on his side, covering his eyes with his hand. It was very child-like and Madara almost smiled at the tormented soul next to him as he changed back but after surveying the wounds and bruises all over his body he felt he was being greatly deceived as to the innocence the boy possessed.

Madara lay next to him looking up at the ceiling and giving Itachi some time. But after what felt like an hour, Itachi showed no sign of ever wanting to get up again.

"After that," Madara said calmly, running his fingers through his hair thinking it was an outrage that Itachi would prefer Sasuke's blue-black locks to his hair, which was lovely itself, thank you very much, "it begs the question if you were taking your lust out on Sasuke or your anger out on him."

Itachi wasn't listening

Madara, fed up with Itachi's silence, grabbed his shoulder and turned him over to face him.

He started though, when he saw Itachi looking at him with the Mangekyou. Even though the look carried no emotion it was intimidating because of it.

Madara was not at all pleased. He loomed over Itachi and slid his fingers up Itachi's neck and slowly curled them around it before he gripped it fiercely.

"You've got some balls, Itachi, for you to threaten me with the weapon _**I**_ gave you."

Itachi showed no sign of wanting to remove the obstruction around his throat.

Madara looked at Itachi's gorgeous but annoyingly impassive face and wondered how the boy could not be in the least frightened of him. He was immortal! Even if Itachi was now stronger than him, there was only one way that the outcome of a serious fight would go.

"Do you not fear death?" Madara asked the boy in front of him, knowing that despite his age his answer would not belie his wisdom.

Itachi was silent for a long time. "….I fear the death of others, not myself. You should know this; you exploit it."

Madara shook his head in a "you're right" sort of bob, thinking of Sasuke.

"Fear exists only in life. A narcissist obsessed with superficial glories cannot understand that."

Madara lowered his eyes from Itachi's to gaze at his neck and defined collarbones. He removed his hand from Itachi's throat and brushed away a strand of hair from his neck.

"I am not in love with myself."

"I would imagine someone who seeks immortality to hate himself or eventually come to."

Madara smirked at his audacity. "We can talk about this later…for the moment, what I want to know is do you plan to use me every time you want to fuck your brother?"

Itachi pushed Madara off him and he easily backed off.

"I don't want to _fuck_ him."

Madara rolled his eyes. "Denial isn't healthy, Itachi. That's your great conflict, isn't it? That you lust after the boy but at the same time you _love_ him too much to touch him that way so _this_," Madara gestured at the bed, "is your only middle ground."

Itachi got off the bed and buttoned up his pants. "Have you nothing better to do than analyze my feelings? I see the allure of endless time on your hands."

Madara raised his brows at the uncharacteristic sarcasm from Itachi. Perhaps he was rubbing off on him? (Pun intended)

Madara flopped back on the bed, crossing his legs. Brushing his fringe away from his eye, Madara called, "You do remember what I said earlier today? There is nothing you can do about Mikoto."

Itachi gave him a wry glare before leaving without a word.

Madara frowned at the door as it closed behind Itachi.

"He's not going to listen to me, is he? What a troublesome boy."

.

.

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TBC

:: ::: :::

The more you review, the faster I update! Happy New Year! If the ancient Mayans are accurate, the apocalypse is impending! Dum-Dum-dum!


	9. Masquerade

Okay, fine. So, Sasuke will admit he did it for the wrong reasons-still! The rejection pierced straight through his reinforced pride and yeah, it had hurt at first like, _a lot_ especially since it enforced Fugaku's unfair words. But Sasuke was not a person who stayed depressed for long. Now, he was just plain pissed.

First of all what the hell was that supposed to mean? He's too special? Where is the logic behind that comment? Wasn't being special all the more reason to want to do that...yeah, okay so maybe he sort of understood that Itachi wanted their fraternal bond to stay pure but! They had already _done_ it before so what would it hurt to do it again?

And _where anybody can be my lover_? Doesn't that seem a bit... pompous of Itachi? Just how many lovers had Itachi had anyway...? True...He might not have meant it like that but still, Itachi with all his eloquence and erudition should learn to select his words more carefully.

Sasuke stopped in the middle of the bustling street, feeling eyes on him. He turned swiftly to glare at whoever was daring to mess with him right now but there was nobody who could be the unlucky receiver of the patented Uchiha death glare. Staring a second longer at the utility pole where he had been sure a shinobi had been observing him but then deciding it didn't matter, he made his way toward the Hokage tower.

He wasn't going to think of his annoying(ly attractive) brother right now...he refused to think of him...he, who apparently can have _anybody_ as his lover...

And anybody is such an ambiguous word. It doesn't denote gender. Of course gender hadn't been much of an issue when stacked up against the more stigmatized social taboo of incest but now the problem was, since apparently Sasuke's dick and pride didn't seem to give a damn about how forbidden incest is or how high it ranks on the immoral hierarchy...does Itachi like girls? or boys?

Damn it all. Why does he even care? Why does he want Itachi in the first place? To punish his father? To preserve his fragile pride? (Because the first time felt so freaking good?)

Argh! Why did he have to ask Itachi to touch him! What was he thinking? Of course he was going to say no! What did he think would happen? That Itachi would say something like "Oh, god I was waiting for you to say that because I must have you now, Sasuke, like I've always wanted to have you."

But it did irk him... to the point of wanting to kill someone, that, regardless of what the reason was...it remained a rejection. This was ridiculous; Sasuke knew he was attractive; dozens of girls had told him so, using especially complimentary phrases like "drop dead gorgeous" and "painfully handsome" but he supposed that didn't matter since evidently he was too _special_ and Itachi could have _anybody _as his lover.

He arrived at the Hokage's office and entered after knocking.

Tsunade slid her bottle of sake into a drawer and closed it reluctantly. "What is it, Sasuke?"

Sasuke dipped his head in a more callous than respectful manner and asked, "Why is it that I alone haven't received any missions since after the war? It seems we are short-handed and in need of money to pay for the damage incurred."

Tsunade frowned at the impudent brat before her while resting her chin upon her hand and tapping the table with manicured nails.

"You have not as yet awakened your mangekyou, am I right?"

Sasuke glared at her, irritated at the reminder.

"As you witnessed with your brother," Tsunade caught the slight twitch of Sasuke's fingers but professionally ignored it. "The awakening is a painful and crippling incident. We cannot risk any sudden developments during a high rank mission."

Sasuke was unmoved by this reasoning. "I don't know when or how I can possibly awaken it. In the meantime all my other strengths are going to waste and I have to listen to Naruto boast about how many missions he has. Just..." Sasuke released a frustrated groan. "Just give me a mission. Preferably one that is outside the village."

Tsunade snorted. "So you're asking for an approved escape, not an opportunity to make use of yourself." She frowned however, sympathizing with the brat's desire to leave the village for a few days.

Eyeing an arduous pile of paperwork on her desk, Tsunade considered what mission would be the best for the boy. Oh, well...she did suppose there was one he could do...

She snatched a sheet and scanned it as Sasuke waited, masking his impatience well.

"There is a B rank mission you could do...I suppose. You are to observe only and report the situation. Although...the last person who was sent never returned or sent word..." Tsunade handed him the paper which he took and read through."It's in the hidden village of Getsugakure in the Land of the Moon."

Sasuke nodded once, having gotten the gist of the matter from the brief. "A shady organization hosting quarterly events where only powerful and attractive shinobi are invited. Guests mysteriously disappear," Sasuke grimaced. This sounded like a bad horror/mystery novel.

"I think this is a D rank mission, Tsunade-sama." he complained dryly.

"You don't need to take it," Tsunade smiled sweetly, tapping her fingernails against the table slowly in a dangerous "take-it-and-get-out sort" of way. "And before you make light, you should know that reputable and dangerous shinobi have vanished without a trace, their last known location..."

"The gatherings hosted by this organization," Sasuke finished.

Tsunade nodded grimly and upon afterthought said, "Actually, it would be better if I assigned you a partner-"

Insulted, Sasuke snapped, "I can do this myself. The Land of the Moon...it should take a few days to travel there..."

"Do not underestimate this mission, Uchiha." Tsunade warned. "If you experience any symptoms or signs pertaining to your eyes, you are to withdraw immediately and remember you are there only to observe and report the situation. Don't go any further till we know what we are up against. And try to find what's become of the last shinobi we sent; his name was Kaashi. His physical traits are listed in that sheet."

Sasuke frowned at the paper. "The latest upcoming event is in three days."

"Yes," Tsunade agreed. "You can travel to Getsugakure in two days, can't you?"

Sasuke smiled. Finally, a bit of good news. He could leave tonight.

:::::::: ::::::::::::::

Sasuke closed the door of Naruto's apartment and walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Naruto wasn't home. He was probably on a mission.

Sasuke set down the pouch containing his scrolls and weapons that he had collected from his house earlier this afternoon. He had passed by Itachi's room and noticed his usual mission gear was gone as well. Itachi must have also had a mission. It was nothing unusual that Itachi had left without telling Sasuke. They had never really informed the other about their daily activities or anything of the sort but it was felt now because Sasuke cared enough to notice his absence, even if it had only been a few hours since they last...saw each other.

Sasuke went to Naruto's room and made himself comfortable on the bed, deciding to get some sleep as he would probably be travelling all night. Naruto's bed was soft and warm but Sasuke tossed about,trying to fall into the blissful oblivion of sleep soon, so that he mind wouldn't continue to be assailed by thoughts of his unreachable older brother.

Honestly, Sasuke had no right to be so mad, especially considering how he knows that Itachi loves him dearly...but somehow that wasn't enough anymore. Itachi choosing Sasuke over the entire village or Itachi coming to visit him every day during the war, Itachi calling him "dearest one" and kissing him gently on the forehead...even though it was so much...it just wasn't enough at all. Sasuke felt like he wanted to monopolize Itachi's entire existence, starting from scratch so he could see all the things he never saw before because he had been looking a different way.

Sasuke eventually drifted off but his nap wasn't the dreamless escape he wished for; blurry visuals of all manner of odd shaped Uchihas swum about in his mind half of whom wanted his eyes and the other half wanted him to tell them the secret of fire. Then a beautiful being with raven wings and a glittering katana offered him sanctuary and just as he was about to take up the offer and grab the hilt of the sword, a loud crash woke him up.

Sasuke glared sleepily thinking that no decent ninja could possibly make such a shameful racket. It must be Naruto.

As Sasuke entered the kitchen, Naruto looked up happily and pointed at the clutter on his table. "Your weapons? You managed to convince baa-san to give you a mission?"

Sasuke sneered. "I'd hardly call what she gave me a mission. _You_ could do it," he complained, flopping down on a chair angrily. "Still...I get to leave for a while and hopefully there will be bandits along the way and I can barbeque them."

"You're such a cuddly ball of sunshine, Sasuke," Naruto frowned taking out a carton of milk from his fridge. "So...what's the mission?"

"Tch. I have to investigate why people go missing at some exclusive party. And the whereabouts of one Kaashi."

Naruto shrugged. "It could be difficult," he said taking a seat opposite his grouchy best friend, who continued to look sullen and glared at whatever inanimate objects came into his vision so Naruto out of the goodness of his heart and pity for the poor bastard who probably wasn't taught how to be a pleasant person.

"I know how to cheer you up," Naruto said, grinning widely.

Sasuke rested his chin in his palm, giving Naruto a bored look. "No, you don't."

Naruto's eye twitched but he retained his now forced smile as he got up with relish and said "Shut up, bastard. Now, just watch and learn... the new improved..."

Sasuke suddenly knew what Naruto was going to do and before he could groan and ask the idiot to spare him, Naruto had already transformed into a naked female with ridiculously long hair.

"Sexy No Jutsu!"

Naruto winked at him and linked her fingers together in front of her hips so that her arms squeezed her breasts against one another in exaggerated show.

Sasuke gave him a blank look. "..."

"Look, look," she said excitedly pointing at her breasts, "I got them looking even better than before...look how curvy they are! But they're heavy...and I mastered the art of the face and hair... everything's softer when you're a girl!"

"..."

"And I even got my eyes to look bigger and got thicker lashes. When Ero-sennin saw it, he nearly died! I nearly died when I saw myself in the mirror!"

"..."

"Hey," the female Naruto suddenly snapped her head towards Sasuke, her eyes flashing with the thoughts of an evil plan. Sasuke leaned back a little, alarmed.

"Why don't you try it!"

Sasuke stared at the gleeful girl before him, somewhat incredulous at the suggestion. "What nonsense."

But Naruto had donned a familiar expression that Sasuke had come to recognize and hate. He headed for the door, because he knew that look... it was the look that would eventually, don't ask him how, convince Sasuke to do something idiotic and pointless just for the hell of it that Sasuke would, in normal situations, rather die than consider...

:;:::::::::::::::: 69696969696 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Sasuke stared at his reflection in the mirror critically as Naruto circled around him.

"Actually," Naruto sounded genuinely surprised. "You look amazing."

Well, to call a spade a spade.

Sasuke tilted his face to the side, glancing at his hourglass figure and somewhat marveling at the differences he felt. This body was considerably weaker than his, he could feel it in his muscles and in his light weight. Also, Naruto was right. Everything was so much softer..his neck, his shoulders and it was so weird to think...his, or rather her breasts.

"Make them bigger."

Sasuke grimaced.

"What? If you can, why not? You don't look sexy...you just look...um, pretty?"

That was putting it lightly. Sasuke looked gorgeous. His blue black hair was now waist long but it retained its spiky nature and stuck up at the back from his neck to the bottom of his locks in a pretty punk sort of way. Sasuke had managed to get his face done way better than a now disgruntled Naruto. His eyes were now slightly bigger but Sasuke already had such large captivating eyes that it was barely a difference but his lips had plumped up somewhat and they were soft to the touch. His face was more or less the same, one could definitely identify him as Sasuke or a female version of him. Most disturbingly, Sasuke's body looked beautiful and very elegant. Not sexy, as Naruto said but Sasuke was not about to look like a bimbo. This was already a breach of practically his whole personality. But somehow Naruto had managed, once again, with his innate and quite frankly scary powers of persuasion, to convince Sasuke to do it.

"This is supposed to be Sexy No Jutsu!" Naruto suddenly burst out in rage. "And then I teach it to you and you make it...you know," he gestured with his arms flapping about, "Like you! You look like an arrogant princess who would rather eat men for breakfast than satisfy them."

Sasuke signed, dropping the jutsu.

Men would certainly go crazy for that jutsu. Sasuke wondered, despite himself, if a specific individual would be affected by it. Provided that is what he got off on...which Sasuke wouldn't know anything about...

"I don't know why I listen to your idiocy."

"Hey! Do not mock the Sexy No Jutsu! It could come in handy; you could disguise yourself and infiltrate that party you were talking about. Since you're only supposed to investigate it'd be easier to like...you know flirt with a guy and get some intel from him rather than the noisier and messier threatening and beating up."

There was logic in the helpful advice however Sasuke felt like Naruto was only trying to sell and glorify his puerile product and turned his nose up at the suggestion that he seduce a man while posing as a girl. Well, actually..._no_. It was ridiculous. Even if he could take them completely by surprise, provided the need arose, with that unassuming form he still had to be a girl! He was hanging around Naruto too much, that was the problem...for him to actually consider one of Naruto's ideas was a bit concerning though...luckily, he was leaving soon.

He watched Naruto drink the carton of milk and smirked evilly.

"Naruto."

"What?"

"That milk is expired."

Naruto yelped and spat the contents out, drenching Sasuke.

"You bastard! You could have at least-" But Naruto trailed off into laughter as he took in Sasuke's drenched appearance. He looked like a drowned cat. A livid drowned cat.

Naruto grinned widely as his friend activated his chidori.

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Sasuke left an hour later, feeling weirdly much better after hanging out with Naruto.

But this was still much needed. Flitting past the land so fast, the entire world was a blur and Sasuke felt powerful and in control. He could get to The Land of the Moon in no time at all. It would probably take a normal shinobi three days but Sasuke could do it in two…one and a half days even.

And when he was travelling this fast...he didn't need to think about his annoying obsession.

:::::::::::: 6969696 ::::::::::::::::

He reached The Land of the Moon the next night and stopped in a forest to camp.

Looking up at the sky, it was easy to see why the land was given its name. The night sky had never looked so ethereally beautiful and the moon had never looked bigger and never had a more haunting glow.

The moon reminded him of that night, some six or so years ago when Itachi had returned from a mission in the dead of the night and his arm was bleeding heavily. Sasuke, who had been expecting his brother a day ago was up, waiting for him in the hope that he would show up. He was shocked to find how nonchalant his brother was being about his wound. He had seemed content to just let it bleed as he watched the moon in silence and didn't move from his spot in their garden.

_But Itachi had known he was there. _

_"Go back to bed, outoto."_

_Sasuke had gasped, thinking he had masked his presence so well. _

_"Nii-san, you're bleeding!" he said worriedly. "What happened? Who did this to you?"_

_Itachi finally turned his eyes away from the moon and looked at Sasuke. "Who? What does it matter?" _

_Sasuke got angry with his brother's carefree attitude and he wasn't doing anything about the blood that was steadily trickling down his arm. That was extremely morbid. _

_"Of course it matters!"_

_"Because," Itachi signed, closing his eyes, "He was strong enough to injure me?"_

_"Because...I don't like it. I'll get revenge for you." Sasuke said seriously, fisting his hands. _

_Itachi looked down at his little brother in surprise. Then smiled gently at him._

_"I wouldn't want you to seek revenge, outoto_. _It's fine... because this is one of the only things that make me feel alive."_

_An eight year old Sasuke felt like throwing a tantrum. "What do you mean, nii-san! When you're bleeding how can you feel alive?"_

_Itachi seemed to realize something at that point and quickly backtracked. "You're right. I was being silly. I'll bandage this now." _

_"I'll do it, nii-san. You're already injured."_

_"No." Itachi said, somewhat firmly, startling Sasuke. "It's very cold tonight. You go back to sleep before you catch a cold."_

Sasuke made a pained face, understanding more now than he could have at that age. Itachi was only eleven when he started to feel empty. Sasuke understood the feeling well enough now; it usually accompanies brutal missions where you feel as if you're nothing but a weapon and you question your worth as a human. Where pain assuages guilt and even though you feel torturously alone you deliberately seek seclusion.

Sasuke felt a very painful longing to revisit that scene and handle things differently. Restlessly he turned over, trying to forget that sad memory and telling himself he needed to sleep so he could start early on making it to the village tomorrow.

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After a very frustrating reconnaissance where he learned absolute garbage he finally got a lead on the gathering that was being held in, according to his source, some fancy mansion that belonged to a feudal lord. Sasuke could hardly call that shady... rather, they were parading this event. Where ever Sasuke travelled within that tiny village he heard whispers of the much anticipated "event" being thrown.

He found the mansion easily enough...it was famous it in a tiny village like this. Its opulence was totally out of place.

He confidently entered the mansion like he owned it at around eleven when the party or whatever the hell it was, seemed to be in full swing, it seemed shinobi from all around the Lands were gathering here. And all of the people who entered were either strikingly good looking or intimidating/strong or both.

To his surprise there were no guards or bouncers of any kind but there were a rather large number of barriers placed, which Sasuke felt but cleared quite easily just by passing through them. It seemed whatever they were looking for, Sasuke was in the clear. They were probably assessing chakra levels as the brief had informed him they might.

Sasuke raised his brows at the lavish display, tasteful though it was...it didn't appear the least bit shady at all. People were laughing and dancing and chatting exuberantly. Some wore extremely formal outfits while others wore simpler garments. Sasuke was in the latter category, not having been prepared for anything this outlandish.

Scanning around, he could detect no suspicious activity or even spot any incriminating person. The guests seemed to be free to explore the mansion and so Sasuke did just that, circumnavigating all the chattering strangers who seemed to want to talk to him. But one insistent older woman who looked to be in her thirties blocked his way for the third time and he finally stopped to give her the time of day.

Delighted at his co-operation, she wasted no time in leaning next to his face and asking in a conspirational whispher, "You are going for the selection at midnight?"

"Yes," Sasuke replied confidently.

"Excellent," and the woman actually licked her lips strongly reminded Sasuke of Orochimaru but she at least had a normal tongue. Actually, she was quite beautiful. "You know...there is quite a bounty this time, but I haven't heard of you...?"

"Nor I of you." He said stiffly.

She smiled coquettishly. "Dear boy, you are not serious. I am the Mizukage of Kirigakure."

Sasuke revealed no emotion but was shocked to find a Kage here. What on earth was going on?

"Oh, well...this time, should I be selected, they will certainly regret their actions. It's really shameless what they are doing...this group cannot be allowed to exist any longer. I was told not to come, but since everybody else seems incapable of doing the job themselves...," she signed. "Be careful, handsome, or you'll be snapped up as well."

Sasuke watched her leave, not understanding what the fuck was going on. It appeared the Mizukage was trying to stop the group in charge of this? Or something.

Sasuke went up the stairs and watched the people mingling down below from the banister of the balcony. It was less crowded on the second floor and endless doors filled the seemingly endless corridors on his left and right.

Sasuke watched the pretty people mindless chat with each other and he knew they were waiting for midnight. He saw a woman in an eye catching red kimono that was decorated with black crows that reminded him irresistibly of Itachi. There was even a boy who looked like Itachi.

Wait. That was Itachi!

Sasuke gripped the banister and stared down hard but there was no mistaking that lean silhouette or that lustrous brown-black hair. Heart thumping at this unexpected coincidence he hid behind a marble pillar just as Itachi turned around. All he had to do was look up and he would spot Sasuke.

Not thinking at all anymore, Sasuke changed into the female version of himself and took his inspiration for his outfit...or rather, now...her outfit from the lady he was watching before; a midnight blue kimono with silver crows. Sasuke looked around for Itachi but it seemed he had disappeared. What on earth was he doing here?

And where did he disappear to?

Sasuke frowned at the floor below him and turned around, trying to get his thoughts back on track; he was here on a mission, a mission! But that flew right back out the window when he saw Itachi ascending the stairs looking like the picture of elegance. He had on a dark travelling cloak and he had removed his forehead protector allowing his bangs to seductively cover his feline like eyes. All this, Sasuke noticed in three seconds or less.

Itachi glanced his way and stopped, raising his eyebrows in clear surprise.

.

.

.

TBC


	10. Sexual Orientation predicated

SPOILERS IN THE WARNING!

**Warning:** Things get a bit sexual but the real warning (since that's what everyone's here for in the first place) is that things get a bit heterosexual! Yes! Gasp! The horror! Bear with me; things just turned out this way. Oh man, the things you can do in the Narutoverse.

:: :: :: ::

Itachi looked at her carefully, from head to toe, his gaze lingering on her hair and Sasuke wondered just how crazed he had become in matters concerning Itachi that he would throw all logic and reason and manly pride out the metaphorical window and turn into a fucking female because he was so panic-stricken at the unexpected presence of Itachi.

Fuck Naruto and his asinine advice! He was going to kill the fucking retard as soon as he got back to Konoha.

While Sasuke was thinking homicidal thoughts, Itachi had apparently decided the girl who could pass as Sasuke's twin and his little sister was not worth his time for he walked right past her towards the corridor on the left.

And this somehow made Sasuke panic even more.

"Are you going for the selection at midnight?" she blurted out. Sasuke's voice was affected with the change in his physiology so there was no need to disguise his voice. The voice was decidedly feminine and although it was not one of those irritating high pitched voices that Sasuke so loathed it still bothered him; this was not him! What was this farce?

Why had he stopped Itachi from leaving?

Was he really so desperate to spend more time with Itachi but so mentally fragile that he did not have the guts to face him as himself? The situation was mortifying; he could so easily be found out and then how the hell was he going to explain himself? Every second he spent with Itachi meant a higher risk of being found out and the last thing he should be doing on a mission is getting distracted with personal issues but even though it was completely unprofessional he just had to...

He just had to because...even though, logically he should be able to breathe easy with Itachi elsewhere, if Itachi was going to walk past someone who looked exactly like him…that would seem like a second rejection somehow... like Itachi wanted nothing to do with anything related to Sasuke.

Itachi looked back at her again, their eyes meeting sharply and frowned slightly. "Of course not."

This just confused Sasuke even more. Of course not? It would appear Itachi knew what was going on. Well then...

Why not try to gather information from him? Two birds with one stone. Except that...with Sasuke as a girl, attempting to glean information from Itachi would suggest a sexual interest in him, since Sasuke was supposed to be a guest invited and therefore already aware of the goings-on at the soiree and Itachi would not be interested in that, right?

Sasuke closed the slight distance between them and Itachi turned around fully to face her, not hiding his impatience.

Or would he be?

"Why not?" Sasuke asked. In an overly determined attempt not to sound coquettish her tone came out more threatening than anything else.

Abruptly, Itachi's look changed; he lowered his eyes sensuously and fixed a taken aback Sasuke with a smoldering gaze that put Sasuke's heart into overdrive. Sasuke took a hesitant step back when Itachi strode confidently into her personal space and he leaned down ever so slightly. His actions were having a very serious effect on Sasuke's metabolism and he wholeheartedly blamed this stupid feminine body and its oversensitivity.

Itachi skillfully steered Sasuke away from the banister where they could be seen from below and towards the shadier corridor, where it was wonderfully private. Sasuke was mesmerized by Itachi's smooth actions, executed like a pro.

When Itachi had backed Sasuke against a wall between two doors and leaned a hand against said wall, in close proximity to her shoulder, Sasuke felt trapped in an exhilaterating way. Never had he been so aware of Itachi's masculinity than now, where Itachi was a head taller than her, looking down at her in a way that suggested she was going to experience absolute ecstasy whether she wanted to or not and his hand lay against the wall in a dominating stance.

Sasuke unconsciously licked her lips and watched as Itachi smirked in a devilishly sexy way at the open and absolute desire on Sasuke's face. But at that crucial moment, some innate instinct of Sasuke's recognized danger.

!

Less than a second later, before her brain could even process what her body had been quicker at realizing, Sasuke had clapped her hands onto Itachi's eyes, preventing the sharingan from capturing its target.

Sasuke released a shaky sign as her heart thudded wildly against her ribcage. That had been so bloody close! Of course Itachi had just being acting seductive in order to fool her long enough to lure her away from possible witnesses and then place her under a genjutsu! This insane desire was dulling his senses, but luckily not his reaction time because had he been a second later the sharingan would have recognized his chakra and he would have had to explain to Itachi why he was posing as a girl.

Itachi was just a bit startled when hands suddenly slapped onto his eyes. He didn't move them away though, instead he chuckled softly, genuinely amused.

"That's the first time anyone has ever attempted that."

Sasuke grimaced. Yeah, he wasn't exactly proud of this un-ninja like move either, but considering the circumstances it was the only option without exposing his identity, short of running away and even that was pointless.

Itachi brought his hand up and trailed his fingers through Sasuke's long hair, taking hold of a midnight blue lock and smoothing his fingers along the length of it. Sasuke gritted her teeth; she knew what her brother was doing. That type of action was usually impossible to ignore; automatically the eyes would focus on the movement and Sasuke knew Itachi could cast genjutsu with just a finger alone. Unfortunately this knowledge did nothing to quell her entrancement or her quickened breathing (it_ had _to be something related with the fact that he was a girl.) but she forced herself not to look at Itachi's slender fingers.

Itachi smiled, enjoying the challenge. "You seem to have experience with Uchiha."

"You seem to have experience seducing girls." Sasuke countered.

Itachi laughed softly. "Moreover you seem to be familiar with my abilities."

Sasuke frowned; annoyed that Itachi hadn't denied his last statement.

"Remove your hands. I won't use my sharingan."

Itachi seemed reluctant to actually touch her. Wondering why, but believing Itachi when he said he wouldn't use sharingan she removed her hands from Itachi's face. Itachi's eyes were black but they retained their hypnotizing magnetism and Sasuke looked to the side.

"That was uncalled for. I just wanted to ask you a few questions."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at that and seemed to consider something.

"Is that all you wanted?"

Sasuke frowned. Was Itachi aware of how he was speaking? He _must_ have known that the deep melodious tone of his voice was flustering her.

"You already know the answer to that, don't you? I guess it's pointless-" Sasuke didn't know why he was admitting it. But really, what was the use in denying it? He hadn't intended on doing anything about his immoral desires initially but now, the craving was so unbearably intense Sasuke feared unless he did something about it, nothing would change. Besides, he was no liar; had Itachi directly asked Sasuke if he desired him he would have answered in affirmation.

Itachi chuckled once and Sasuke tingled in a very weird place. Itachi was laughing a lot today. As if something was amusing him to no end.

"Try me." He whispered so enticingly and the invitation was just too tempting to pass up. Sasuke looked at Itachi hesitantly and then moved forward, pressing her lips against his softly. Receiving no response but no resistance either, she wrapped her arms around Itachi's shoulders and pulled him closer to her, while hardening the kiss.

Sasuke could feel Itachi's smile against her mouth and just as she was about to pull back from frustration at his passiveness and apparent amusement at Sasuke's expense, he slid a strong arm around her waist and brought her flush up against him. Itachi leaned back an inch to look down at her and she could see the glint in his eyes.

He moved his fingers teasingly across her collarbones and in smooth movement loosened the top of her kimono causing it to slip past her shoulder and reveal an ample amount of cleavage. Sasuke didn't care that he was a girl anymore, if this was the way he could get Itachi then so be it. What he did care about however, was the fact that Itachi had loosened his kimono so skillfully.

"You have done this before." It was hard to keep the accusation out of his voice.

All it did was serve to amuse Itachi even more. "That question is just begging for an answer." He smirked before he placed his lips at the juncture between her neck and shoulder and trailed soft sweet kisses over the area.

Sasuke's eyelids lowered from lust, although Itachi was being much too gentle for her liking. Itachi kissed the upper curve of her breast and Sasuke gasped at the foreign but intimate feeling. The tip of his tongue joined his talented lips and Sasuke moaned wantonly.

Itachi straightened up and looked at her in amused incredulity. "Just how far do you intend to go with this?"

Sasuke stiffened and Itachi pensively brushed her hair again.

"I had thought this hair color was unique." Itachi murmured and Sasuke stared at him, picking up on his referent. Itachi brought up a strand to touch upon his lips.

"In fact, it is unique, isn't it?" Itachi's words ran through Sasuke like ice cold water.

Sasuke looked at Itachi, frozen while the latter shook his head in disbelief, letting go of her.

"What on _earth _are you _doing,_ Sasuke? I hardly believe it's you though it could _only_ be you. Would you really turn into a girl in an attempt to please me?" He looked at Sasuke as if expectant of a denial. As if he wanted Sasuke to dispute it.

Sasuke supposed he should be glad that Itachi was more amused than angry but instead he was thoroughly irritated. He dropped the jutsu, glad that he was finally rid of the ridiculous cover. Itachi looked up at the confirmation of his suspicions and started laughing again.

Sasuke fisted his hands. "It's not funny, Itachi!" he hissed.

Itachi shook his head slightly, more to clear his thoughts than in disagreement. "You're right. It's not funny." He looked up at Sasuke seriously. "Would you please explain it to me? I pride myself on knowing how you think but I honestly can't comprehend your thoughts behind this."

Sasuke glared at the floor. "I'm on a mission."

Itachi looked at Sasuke sardonically. "Which involves you posing undercover as a female and coming on to me?"

Sasuke re-directed his glare at his brother. "You were the one who first started acting suggestive! Initially, I just wanted to ask you some questions regarding this place and speaking of which, why are you here?"

Itachi signed, leaning against the wall. "How arrogant of me to assume such." Sasuke frowned; the way Itachi said that seemed more placatory than apologetic.

"I came here to meet someone, Sasuke. And I really do have to get going because the selection starts at midnight and I won't have another opportunity then-"

Disregarding that for now but intending to get back to it later Sasuke asked a more pressing question, "If you knew it was me, why…would you do that? I thought I was too special." He said, sounding bitter at the end.

Itachi signed, seeming less amused now. "Honestly, I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that it was you when I saw you at first. I just thought it was a freak coincidence or some sort of cruel joke of providence, but from your actions and informed knowledge of my abilities…there was a possibility that it was you and I suppose I was curious to see what you would do…if it was you but I thought…or rather, I was sure that you would stop me at some point…"

Itachi looked up at Sasuke, calm but somewhat rueful. "In any case, I apologize; I went too far."

"No, you didn't! Wasn't it obvious that I was more than willing?" Sasuke snapped.

"About that…even as a girl?"

Sasuke had the grace to be embarrassed. He looked away, mumbling, "If that was what it took."

"But Sasuke," Itachi half-laughed, half-signed, "I don't even like girls."

Oh.

Well then.

But how the hell was _he_ supposed to know that?

"Now that _that's_ established," Sasuke muttered, hopefully sounding like his pride was not severely damaged, "I won't try that again."

Itachi bit his lip to hide his smile. "We will talk about this later; we _need _to since we're both so distracted to the point of it interfering with our missions but for now I have to go. What will you do?"

"I'm going for the selection, I guess."

Itachi stared. "What for?"

Sasuke shrugged. "To figure out what they're doing? The mission entails investigation regarding the missing shinobi."

Itachi gave him somewhat of a pitiful look. "If that's all…I can tell you about it. Later. Don't bother going for the selection." Itachi advised and left.

Sasuke watched him go, irked at the fact that his big brother would just show up, kiss him teasingly then decide to do everything himself and leave, more or less implying "run along now."

Sasuke still had a lot of questions but Itachi had promised to deal with that and Sasuke was feeling better now that Itachi seemed more willing to touch him and his overall demeanor seemed different. Wondering what brought about the change but sure he would find out soon enough, he left the mansion.

:: :: :: :: ::

In a gloomy stone walled dungeon of the mansion, a figure paced up and down thoughtfully as he absentmindedly assessed the bodies around him, weighing and either discarding or accepting all the possible options.

The door opened with an ominous creak and though he had not been expecting anyone he turned around calmly to face the encroacher. His eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Look who it is," he said in his soft serious voice.

Itachi entered, closing the door carelessly behind him.

The red-head gave him a once over and returned his attention to his weapons. "Have you come to join us finally or are you here to challenge us at the selection?"

"Neither," Itachi said, moving forward and like the boy before him, surveyed all the hanging bodies.

He scoffed mockingly. "A social visit, then? In a short while, I have a number of guests to attend to today, even the Mizukage has attended and as you know, I hate to keep people waiting."

"I won't keep you," Itachi said without emotion, stopping in front of a particular puppet and surveying it with his sharingan.

Sasori glanced at the puppet which held the Uchiha's attention and joined him to look at it, admiring the beauty of the container.

"Sublime, isn't it?" Sasori smirked. "The preservation of beauty is what makes it all worthwhile. You have a good eye…did you know she was once an Uchiha?"

Itachi glanced at Sasori from the corner of his eye, noting the glee and pride in his expression, before looking back at the lifeless marionette.

"She looks remarkably like Madara."

Sasori turned his head to give Itachi a sly smile. "You want information on Madara? Why don't you join us, Itachi?"

Itachi signed. "I have no desire to be part of a group controlled by Madara."

"He does not control us," Sasori said in a dangerously low voice. "We have a mutualistic relationship. We are equals."

"His words."

Sasori narrowed his eyes in irritation. "Regardless…we are here because we choose to be. I can leave Akatsuki any time I want and he knows it."

"I'm sure he does," Itachi agreed tonelessly enough that it seemed sarcastic. But Sasori knew Itachi and his indifferent personality and he let it pass. He had met him a few times, some by chance and some meetings were arranged by Madara, back when he was hoping to recruit Itachi. Sasori was indifferent about Itachi, finding his silent personality to be most agreeable when compared with that idiotic loudmouth blonde. It wouldn't be a bad thing if Itachi did join them; rumors of a supreme power that Itachi possessed had been circulating around Akatsuki and they could use more manpower. But Itachi wanted nothing to do with quixotic schemes like world domination or anything concerning Madara.

Madara on the other hand, was obsessed with Itachi; it was clear in the way he treated him and the annoying monologues about Itachi being worthy enough to challenge him and perhaps succeed him one day. Itachi's attitude toward Madara had changed drastically; the first few times they had met, Itachi had been very young, only around eleven or so but he seemed to admire Madara and listen to him obediently. But the last meeting had clearly shown Itachi had grown distant and even resentful towards Madara.

And now Itachi was back of his own volition. Perhaps he intended to take down Madara? But wasn't that foolish…to take on an immortal? It didn't matter to him, it could even be interesting. One of them was bound to die, more than likely Itachi and then he was sure Madara would let him preserve Itachi. Thinking about it excited him. Itachi would make an absolute stunning corpse. Powerful and beautiful, he could be the jewel of his collection. It wouldn't hurt…to give Itachi some information. He had seven minutes left to midnight.

"That was his sister."

Itachi looked at Sasori, not expecting information to come that easily. He had been planning to use his Mangekyou.

Sasori smiled, sure he had surprised the Uchiha with that information. "Yes…Not many people knew he ever had a sister. Her name was Izanami. She was and still is very powerful, even though she doesn't have her eyes now."

Itachi raised a brow in askance and Sasori elaborated. "Madara covets the eyes of the Uchiha; he sees it as his right, somehow…an arrogance gained over the years, no doubt…though he let me have her body and the rest of her abilities to use as I wish, he would not let me have her eyes. In any case, he said she had lost them when she was still alive. Somehow, I got the feeling he never liked her."

"And Izuna?"

Sasori shrugged. "Izuna died after Izanami, or so I heard, but Madara never gave me his corpse. I gather he did not feel I deserved to touch him, but Izanami was another story. Like I said, I don't think he much cared for her… but these are just speculations."

"Was she his younger sister?"

Sasori shook his head. "Older. Madara was the youngest in his family."

"What do you know of Madaras' parents? Specifically…his mother?"

Sasori puzzled over the question. "Nothing…I did hear that Madara was the one to kill her, though. And Izuna was his accomplice but I highly doubt the credibility of those stories. I would not place much faith in them, if I were you."

Itachi looked back at the beautiful puppet. She bore a very strong resemblance to her younger brother but she was smaller and slighter, with softer, rounder features.

"That is all I know."

Itachi nodded once. "Thank you for your cooperation and time."

"I expect a corpse in exchange," Sasori sniffed and checking the time he said, "I must be off now, with any luck the Mizukage will soon be a work of art."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at Sasori's request then warned him, "I would not underestimate her, if I were you."

Sasori smirked at their odd relationship; it was polite sometimes, helpful even and at others it was hostile and malicious. He connected his chakra threads to Izanami and pulled her along. Itachi had helped him decide who to pick today and now he wondered why he hadn't chosen her before.

"And if I were you, I wouldn't underestimate Madara."

Itachi watched the boy leave with his puppet in tow, thinking that all the dangerous men he knew were somehow or the other very childish in certain aspects.

Itachi frowned when he thought of Madara, who had told him he was Izuna's elder brother. There was always something shady involving blood relatives in their clan. And he had a feeling this time was no different.

:

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The End.

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Kidding! TBC

Please review? I'd like to know what you'll think, but please be nice. My ego's taken a bit of a hit lately so please soothe it!

P.S. I was blushing so much when I was writing about Itachi and Sasuke as girl! Why is that? Somehow I'm less bashful to write two guys together.


	11. Red Delicious

As the author I wiggle my fingers with mystical magic and _command_ you'll to enjoy this chapter.

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Sasuke slid slowly into the crescent shaped lake in the woods, immersing himself chin-deep in the refreshingly cool water. It was a warm night and the stars were beautiful and bright. The strong and dazzling glow of the full moon illuminated the dark waters, casting an ethereal reflection.

Sasuke closed his eyes and basked in the peace and perfect temperature of his surroundings. By the next two days or so he would be back in Konoha and have to deal with everything he left behind but for now, he wanted to enjoy this time away from the village.

The whisper of rustling leaves as soft breezes blew past coupled with the soothing sound of the water flowing lulled him into a hazy pensiveness.

Sasuke slid his fingers over his abdomen and thought inexplicably of Itachi. Giving into temptation he had tried to suppress and ignore for a few days now, he slid his hand lower and brushed his member testingly. He thought of Itachi's blazing look when he was mad at Madara; Itachi looked hot when he was angry. He recalled the feel of Itachi's lips against his neck and his unique smell, hard to place a name on but intoxicating in its essence and the smoldering look Itachi had graced him with earlier tonight. Itachi could be manipulative if he wanted to and Sasuke found the imperfect bad boy side of Itachi all the more desirable for it.

Sasuke tried to think of the precious meaningful memories where Itachi's actions spoke volumes about his feelings like when he refused to take an important ANBU mission just so he could attend Sasuke's entrance ceremony at the ninja academy or when Itachi had stayed up all night when Sasuke was sick to take care of him when their parents were away but these memories did nothing to turn him on, in fact it had the opposite effect. He couldn't get off on a kind and gentle brother; he had to think of Itachi, the unreachable, dangerous and talented genius of the clan.

Sasuke knew, in some way, that these feelings were wholly unhealthy and would most likely damage their relationship because apart from the nirvanian sexual gratification that resulted from their intimate interactions together, the emotional pleasure was derived not from the fact that he loved his brother in a romantic way but rather he took pleasure in being with someone of Itachi's reputation and stature. Further, Itachi was the apotheosis of power and as far back as Sasuke could recall he had always harbored a yearning for power. To Sasuke, Itachi was the representation of everything sweet and forbidden. And he wanted the fruit, badly.

It was not that Sasuke didn't love Itachi but that type of love was not something one would call romantic love. But then was there a distinction between romantic love and familial love mixed with lust? He didn't know; it was confusing and frustrating and he didn't want to think about it.

Sasuke sensed a presence and he whipped his head around, activating his sharingan and peered through the dense thickets surrounding the lake. The chakra signature was Itachi's; the lightest palest mint green. It was a peaceful color that had a soothing sensation attached to it.

Sasuke straightened up just as Itachi appeared on the other side of the lake. It seemed his meeting had gone by fast.

Itachi looked at Sasuke as the latter looked back, both of them silent and expressionless.

Sasuke suddenly felt reluctant to talk about them. He had thought the matter over to death the last few days and he didn't want to hear Itachi say something like he couldn't again. Itachi's reasons, however noble and protective they might be, were just not good enough to refuse Sasuke again. Sasuke might just snap and do something more idiotic than turn into a girl...whatever that might be.

"Why don't you join me?" Sasuke invited, breaking the gauging eye contact between them.

Itachi merely shook his head once, choosing instead to sit by the lake bank and keep the distance between them.

"Are you shy?" Sasuke asked, semi-sardonic.

Itachi didn't take the bait, just signed softly as he closed his eyes. "Which issue would you like to talk about first?"

Sasuke ignored his brother in turn and swiftly swam the four meter distance to where Itachi sat.

When he surfaced Itachi was watching him with his head slightly tilted to the side, as if to better evaluate Sasuke.

"You swim well."

Sasuke shrugged cockily and raised himself up. Itachi watched him, the tiniest bit guarded as Sasuke splashed out of the lake and kneeled before him, staring at his brother levelly.

Itachi was very studiously ignoring Sasuke's dripping naked body, looking only at his face and eyes.

They exchanged a heavy look for a few minutes while the wind whistled; the noise coming across as more of a showdown soundtrack than a peaceful murmur now that the situation had changed.

Throwing caution to the wind or as Itachi would put it, giving caution the middle finger, Sasuke closed the already unbearable distance between them and molded his lips to Itachi as though it was his birthright.

Itachi moved back a fraction of an inch, ever-ready to protest. "That's not talking, Sasuke." he gently reprimanded.

Sasuke pulled back. "Maybe Madara is right," he said softly not noticing Itachi's eyes narrow at the mention of his former sensei and the word 'right.' "And it is...just a parochial mindset."

Itachi gave him a stolid look that seemed to Sasuke sort of judgmental.

"Really, Sasuke."

Sasuke didn't reply, he just looked at Itachi's neck admiring its' pale perfection as his fingers tingled with the urge to touch that enviable skin.

"What then, is exempt from that premise? Would you say condemnation for murder is a parochial mindset? Or that," he said with specific emphasis, "the concept of fidelity is parochial? By that reasoning we are all just animals and all these societal rules are nothing more than restrictive impositions to limit our freedom and _this_," Itachi said with a dark edge to his voice as he trailed his middle finger up Sasuke's spine and Sasuke gasped at the cruel tease, "is perfectly appropriate. What a convenient justification."

Itachi watched Sasuke, noticing his glazed over eyes and fixed him with a weary look, "Sasuke...are you listening to me?"

Sasuke shook his head distractedly and clutched the fabric of Itachi's cloak, cursing his brother's conservative style. He had heard something about them being just animals and he approved of that proposal for a night. He leaned into Itachi, resting his chin on Itachi's shoulder, not caring about the fact that he was naked. Itachi signed but didn't push him away. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Sasuke was not in the mood to talk. They sat there for a few moments in the shade of the canopy, lost in a placid sort of way.

Itachi looked ahead at nothing and asked quietly, "Is our relationship really that insignificant to you?"

Sasuke turned his head slightly and pressed his lips against Itachi's neck, murmuring, "Of course not."

Sasuke placed his hands on Itachi's shoulders and leaned back to look at him. "What would you suggest I do, Itachi?" he questioned in a long-suffering tone. "I want you to the point that I can't think straight anymore."

Itachi's lips parted as if to say something but he appeared to change his mind and he looked to the side but Sasuke was having none of that; he gripped the hair at the nape of Itachi's neck and pulled harshly, forcing Itachi to look at him.

"Do _you_ want _me_?"

Sasuke swallowed as he stared into Itachi's hypnotizing gaze, waiting for the answer...desperately wanting...

"I wish I didn't...I wish I could say I don't-" Itachi signed, closing his eyes, Sasuke was already moving forward and he felt more than heard the last words of his sinful admission against his lips, "but that would be a lie."

Sasuke was tired of holding himself back, he pushed his lips hungrily against Itachi and was delighted that Itachi not only let him, but pressed back, actively participating at last. They both let out similar muffled "mmmm" signs as the kiss deepened and all too fast, grew frantic.

Sasuke loved the desperate way Itachi was kissing him as if he wanted Sasuke just as much and for just as long. Kissing Itachi was such blissful oblivion; it was a hard and intense action that was as exciting as battle but as intimate as sex. The skilful way Itachi sucked his tongue and lips were enough to make this dangerously addictive and Sasuke was already in way too deep.

Itachi got up on his knees while at the same time, pushing Sasuke down on his back. They were so close to the lake that if Sasuke stretched out his hand it would be in the water. But the ground they were on was soft and grassy with next to no mud.

"Should I-"

"Yes!" Sasuke immediately answered, impatient beyond belief.

Itachi's eyes raked over Sasuke's figure and his obvious arousal as he unclasped the button on his cloak and it fell to the ground. He unbuttoned his jeans and then pushed two fingers into his mouth, sucking them while looking at Sasuke with an intense gaze. Sasuke helpfully spread his legs apart, watching his brother unblinkingly. He raised his head in surprise when he thought he saw Itachi blush but the next second Itachi had lowered his head when he started preparing Sasuke and his bangs obscured his face.

No way...there was just no way Itachi had been blushing.

Sasuke hissed out at the intrusion but willed himself to get used to it, _fast_, he needed this, _now. _

But Itachi's fingers were way too slender. "Three," Sasuke panted out. "Or four."

Itachi looked up, slightly confused. "What?"

Sasuke made a weird indecipherable jerk of his head and when Itachi pulled out his fingers Sasuke brought them up to his mouth and coated two more with his tongue. They exchanged a heated look with something of a message or a promise passing wordlessly between them.

Itachi removed his slickened digits and prepared Sasuke further, stretching him properly, happening to graze against Sasuke's prostrate, which made the latter writhe and moan in pleasure.

Itachi removed his fingers for the second time and freed his straining erection. It was the first time Sasuke had seen it, but even now he couldn't look at it properly as Itachi was leaning over him, the picture of beauty incarnate and said as he positioned his length at Sasuke's entrance, "It might hurt."

"I don't care," Sasuke said truthfully as he grabbed Itachi's arms fiercely. "But...you are _not _going to regret this."

Itachi looked at his brother a moment longer, digesting that before he pushed in slowly. Sasuke, finding the act of penetration greatly arousing, removed a hand from Itachi's arm to press against his mouth in order to muffle his loud moans. Sasuke pushed forward suddenly and Itachi hissed as heat encapsulated him and let out a long low "uhhhh" which went straight to Sasuke's cock.

Sasuke closed his eyes, panting as the sensation of being filled again washed over him and when he opened them, it was to find Itachi with his head bowed, his longer bangs brushing over his chest. Sasuke nudged Itachi and when he looked up, a hard closed mouth kiss was inevitable.

Then Itachi began to move and Sasuke couldn't believe he had the strength to wait so long to do this again. He wrapped his arms around Itachi's shoulders and rocked against him as Itachi pushed into him repeatedly. Sasuke's loud moans and Itachi's soft panting echoed around the clearing. Sasuke closed his eyes, realizing in the act of sex, that his feelings were no longer so simple.

Sasuke came before Itachi and he hadn't even needed to touch his dick in order to do so. Beyond that, Sasuke wasn't aware of what happened... but when he opened his eyes again, Itachi had pulled out and his face was turned to the side so all Sasuke could see was Itachi's slightly disheveled hair. Sasuke couldn't feel semen inside of him; Itachi must have pulled out before he came.

Itachi made to get up but Sasuke tiredly caught his arm and when Itachi looked at him sharply he inclined his head to the side.

"Come here."

Itachi's eyes softened and he lay down next to Sasuke. He wasn't panting anymore, Sasuke noted. They watched each other in silence till Sasuke's breathing slowly evened out. It was silent a few minutes after and then Itachi spoke, looking up at the stars and the bright moon.

"At that time when you asked me to touch you back at our house, I had already started to perceive you differently. Regardless, I had decided not to do anything, but then when you seemed to want it as well...I felt betrayed, hypocritical as it was. There have been too many who desired me and merely thought of me as a sexual conquest, I didn't know what to think when you suddenly seemed to feel the same way." Itachi signed deeply before he continued.

"For the two of us it was supposed to be different; there was a sanctity attached. To me, that fraternal bond has always been the most important. But you took the matter out of my hands. It would have been a thousand times easier to ignore whatever I was feeling, had you not felt similarly. Had you been the slightest bit against it, I would not even think of touching you. I confess, I was angry when you made that request and not really in the right frame of mind to touch you. But I hurt you then…you looked about to cry. I don't want to make the wrong decision, Sasuke, especially when it concerns you."

Itachi looked at Sasuke in all seriousness. "I found myself wondering if I even know what's best for you."

Sasuke listened to the words carefully, because he knew Itachi, as private as he was, was revealing his feelings for Sasuke's sake.

Sasuke got up on his elbows. "Can I be honest?"

Itachi looked at him in what seemed like unpleasant anticipation. "I think," Sasuke began slowly running the words through his head before he spoke "….for me…it's not "despite" the fact that you're my brother…but "because"?"

Itachi looked a little distant and a little wistful. "Therefore what you want is for me to fulfill a forbidden fantasy."

Sasuke shrugged, getting up and noticing with indifference his arms were dirty with earth. "I don't know. I don't think there is any way to know for sure, either." Sasuke tilted his head to the side, sizing Itachi up. "The difference between you and I, Itachi…"he trailed off as he climbed on to his unsuspecting brother's lap. "Is that you'd rather suffer in silence and I," he looked earnestly into Itachi's falcon like eyes, "would rather do something about it."

He slid his lips over Itachi's chastely, once, twice and the third time Itachi closed his eyes and kissed back.

"Something like this."

"Well," Sasuke affirmed. "If we both want it there's no point in denying ourselves… I think its fine to indulge till we're satisfied." Sasuke tried to reason. But he was mightily distracted with the fact that Itachi still had all his clothes on. That was hardly fair.

Itachi watched Sasuke as he frowned at his stomach and then in determined resolve, made to pull off his t-shirt. Itachi shook his head at his little brothers' impatience and flattering desire but relented to his wishes.

Sasuke took in his brother's impressive physique, marveling at how flawless and woundless Itachi's skin was for a shinobi. Not even bothering to ask for permission now he smoothed his hand against Itachi's body and trailed his fingers about, exploring the map of his body. He leaned down and kissed Itachi's neck and along his clavicle in a reverent way, taking great pleasure in spoiling Itachi with all the affection. He trailed his mouth down till he reached a nipple and sucked on it indulgently, earning a soft moan from Itachi. But when he passed Itachi's flat taut stomach and didn't show any sign of stopping on his southbound quest, Itachi pushed Sasuke's shoulder back, stopping him.

"Don't." Itachi said, although his expression indicated otherwise.

Sasuke pushed Itachi's hand away irritably and said haughtily, "_I_ want to. If I don't like it, I won't do it again."

Itachi knitted his eyebrows at his spoiled brother. "And what of my opinion?" he asked tiredly.

"I don't care," Sasuke smirked evilly but Itachi knew it wasn't said in seriousness. Sasuke focused his attention on the considerable length before him where the smell of sex was rendering him deliriously aroused. He pressed the flat of his tongue against the side of Itachi's cock and dragged it up sensuously from the base to the tip, which he sucked studiously. Itachi hissed at the sensation and growing slowly more acclimatized to the situation, he threaded his fingers through Sasuke's silky midnight blue hair.

Sasuke liked the wanton feeling associated with this act but he knew he couldn't reasonably take in Itachi's entire length without compromising his looks; he did not want to look like a blowfish in front of Itachi, who he knew was watching him; that intense stare he felt on him was just serving to further arouse him. But satisfying Itachi, though empowering wasn't as pleasurable as being filled and being thrusted into. His selfish side took over and he raised himself up, positioning himself over Itachi, who helped guide Sasuke's hips down. When Itachi was fully in, Sasuke looked at his brother with passion filled eyes.

"There's a problem," Sasuke breathed.

Itachi moved his eyes away from Sasuke's dick to his eyes, asking him wordlessly what it was.

"I don't know when the desire will stop, if ever."

"Perhaps I should do something you dislike?" Itachi smirked; reverting just slightly to that charming and teasing version of himself that Sasuke had the good luck to experience twice tonight.

"Is that possible?" Sasuke mirrored Itachi's smirk. He couldn't believe how light the situation had become; they were actually…flirting with each other. He felt an emotion scarily close to happiness.

Itachi lowered his eyes to grace Sasuke with his irresistible look and Sasuke forgot how to breathe for a minute. Itachi kissed Sasuke just then and the world vanished.

Sasuke lost his mind.

The kiss was unbearably sweet and meaningful. Itachi tilted his head for a better angle as he guided Sasuke's hips up and down. Sasuke wrapped his arms around Itachi's strong shoulders as he fulfilled his fantasies. Itachi broke away gently and moved his attention to Sasuke's neck where he bit and sucked, driving his brother crazy with his talent.

Itachi wrapped his hand around Sasuke's cock and a plethora of endorphins and other pleasure inducing hormones were released culminating in the most ecstatic moment of Sasuke's life.

"Ahhhh!"

Sasuke's head fell on Itachi's shoulder. The elder Uchiha let the boy rest on him for as long as he wanted. A short while later Sasuke raised his head to look at Itachi, waiting.

"You haven't come yet."

"It's fine, Sasuke." Sasuke didn't like that reply. First of all, Itachi's breathing was not even close to the embarrassingly loud vocalizations that Sasuke was capable of and secondly, did Itachi not want him as much as he did?

"Don't be stupid. You're still hard."

"You must be tired."

Sasuke gave his overly caring brother a condescending and challenging look that was usually reserved for Naruto.

"Not even close." Although, that wasn't strictly true but he could care less about his fatigue.

Itachi merely hid a smile and pushed his insistent little brother to the ground as he got on top and pulled Sasuke's legs up. They shared a funny look as both were strongly reminded of the first time they had sex.

"Move like you did that day," Sasuke said. Itachi scrunched his nose at that request which made him slightly uncomfortable and Sasuke's jaw dropped; Itachi looked unbelievably young and _cute_ when he did that. Now Sasuke would have been the first to punch someone had they dared to call his elder brother cute but who knew Itachi could look like that? He was discovering all these different sides to his brother tonight and it gave him a high. He was struck with the sudden and powerful urge to be the only one Itachi loosened up around.

But before he could make a comment which most probably wouldn't have been any kind of intelligent input but more of a teasing coo, Itachi actually granted his request and Sasuke had no attention to focus on his thoughts anymore.

Even though Itachi was moving as hard and intense as he had that day, it was different this time, because Itachi wasn't cursing himself or the world around him; he was doing this of his own free will and Sasuke didn't care that he was being loud and greedy. And most importantly, this was between the two of them alone. There was no else to interfere or judge or watch; they could coalesce in private and to hell with the rest of the world.

Sasuke called out Itachi's name but before he could follow up with the compliment he was intending to give, Itachi silenced him with a hard kiss.

A few minutes of wonderful pleasure later and both brothers climaxed together. Sasuke felt most of his energy leave him with that but he held himself up shakily, not wanting to seem like he couldn't anymore. Itachi pulled Sasuke off himself carefully and Sasuke moved to sit next to Itachi, unable to help himself from leaning against his brother. After he gained back sufficient oxygen he noticed Itachi's hair was still in a ponytail. He couldn't recall a time when his hair had been loose. Honestly, he had never cared before but this whole experience had made him aware of every little thing concerning Itachi, especially his physical appearance.

"Has anyone actually seen you with your hair loose?"

He could tell Itachi was puzzled at the odd question, though his face didn't reveal anything.

"Yes."

It bothered Sasuke how disappointed he was to hear that simple answer. Feeling a bit stupid but wanting to know, Sasuke asked who it was.

Itachi was totally expressionless as he answered, "Madara."

Sasuke blinked, recalling the time in his mother's ward where Madara had smelled Itachi's hair. Sasuke knew he had no right to tell Itachi not to ever let that son of a bitch touch him in that way or any way again though he really wanted to and besides… Itachi should know that without Sasuke having to tell him!

And now Sasuke didn't want to see Itachi's hair loose.

Sasuke leaned away from Itachi who seemed to be waiting for that so he could lie down on the forest floor. Itachi bit back a smile at his spoiled brat of a brother's obvious body language.

"What's the matter, Sasuke? You do not wish to see me with my hair loose simply because Madara beat you to it?"

Sasuke made a disdainful face but otherwise ignored his brother. Itachi pulled Sasuke by his arm and Sasuke, caught completely by surprise fell on top of him. Itachi pulled his hair tie loose as Sasuke propped himself up on his hands watching as Itachi shook his head slightly.

He looked very effeminate with loose hair but also ethereal, like a deity from a story. Mesmerized, Sasuke brushed back the bangs from Itachi's face and combed his fingers through his hair, not unlike how Itachi touched Sasuke earlier that night.

Seeing Sasuke's eyes glaze over once more, Itachi gently removed Sasuke's hand and made to get up.

"I'm going to clean up."

Sasuke's hand shot out in front of Itachi's chest. "Wait." The lust in his voice was obvious.

Itachi looked at Sasuke incredulously. "Sasuke!" he half laughed, half scolded.

Sasuke seemed unapologetic. "One more time."

Itachi watched incredulous and amused but not unwilling as his insatiable brother climbed on to his lap once more, this time facing away from him as he aligned their members together and rocked back and forth slowly and deliberately, making this round much more sensual and teasing. Itachi absently wondered how Sasuke seemed so confident when he had been certain he was straight and prior to their first time together, a virgin.

Sasuke took hold of Itachi's hands, which were slightly larger than his and entwined their fingers together before bringing one hand forward to massage against his chest and the other against both their erections. Itachi kissed the back of Sasuke's pale neck, admiring the color contrast of his creamy skin against his unique hair tone. Sasuke turned around and offered his tongue to Itachi who dutifully sucked it into his mouth.

Sasuke was aware he was being indulged. Itachi was a really good actor. But right now, he didn't care. He wanted as much as he could take and then some because he didn't know when he would be able to have Itachi like this again.

.

.

.

TBC

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Lol. Is that where the name blowfish comes from?

Ah, by the way this might seem like a dodo question but I need to know, can anyone tell me how to separate the author's note from the story with that grey line? Whatever I try doesn't get saved on the Doc Manager.


	12. The Beginning of the Death of Tomorrow

**A/N**: Sorry ww Madara certainly wouldn't mind, but for Sasuke as he is in this story, he would rather cut off his own arm than sleep with Madara. I hope you keep reading though.

Thanks for the reviews. Especially to harmonyopc and Love everlasting for their devotion! :3

Oh, and to my dearly beloved muse, Velvet I _just_ read your review when I logged in. Thank you so much! For your review and your help. Behold, the horizontal line!

* * *

><p>Tsunade tapped her pink nails against her desk, scrutinizing the boy before her through narrowed eyes.<p>

"The organization consists of a group of rouge shinobi from various nations. The purpose of their gatherings is to procure powerful shinobi in order to," a small pause here, "turn them into puppets."

"Puppets?" Tsunade deadpanned.

Sasuke didn't blame her for her skepticism. He didn't really believe it, either. But Itachi wouldn't lie to him.

"Human puppets, if handled correctly, retain their abilities even in a marionette state. Which the puppet Master, a rouge shinobi from Suna, is a master of...apparently," he mumbled. Truth be told, he was feeling a bit sheepish. He should have checked the facts himself and not blindly listened to Itachi. But really, that night, with only one thing on his mind...Itachi could have told him to jump into the pits of hell and Sasuke would have gladly done it. Well... maybe not gladly, but he would have done it.

"However everybody invited has the right to accept or decline as they see fit. They attend consensually, usually with the intention to beat and best the puppet master. They probably underestimate him given how many people have failed at this endeavor. Kaashi was most likely turned into a puppet or killed."

"Is that so?" Tsunade turned to look out her window, absent-mindedly gazing at the Hokage Mountain. "And the grander goal behind all this?"

Sasuke shrugged. "World domination?" It wasn't even said scathingly. Itachi said that it was most likely their goal.

"Is that what you believe or is that their actual goal?"

It's what Itachi believes, but Sasuke refused to tell her that. Their unexpected rendezvous was _private_.

"Either way, they're reputation is spreading and other villages have acknowledged the threat they pose. As I mentioned in my report, the Mizukage was there."

Tsunade frowned at the scenery of Konoha. "And what happened?"

Sasuke signed. The story was just a bit far-fetched, but Itachi wasn't the dramatic type or the type to make things up, so he parroted his brother's summary of the events that unfolded that night.

"I really don't feel as if we should devote any more time or resources to this group. They seem unstable at best. All the missing nin that are members are borderline psychotic. During the gathering two of them had a fight over...art. A blonde ninja from Iwagakure, who is a long range fighter specializing in explosives, tore the place apart and effectively cut short their little party. In my opinion, it's a mercenary group waiting to self-destruct."

Tsunade continued to gaze out thoughtfully. Well, that was all well and good...still, she couldn't help wondering how seriously Sasuke took the entire operation; the hickeys adorning his neck and shoulders didn't exactly scream "professional." But she supposed it was good that he could leave the village for a while what with all the drama surrounding him. If this was how men dealt with their problems, then so be it.

She signed heavily. "Very well. You're dismissed. And Sasuke, might I suggest visiting your mother soon?"

Sasuke bowed his head stiffly and left without another word. He didn't head for his home, or Naruto's. He went instead to a little known field that was opposite the Hokage Mountain to think. Or more accurately speaking, to recall.

Sasuke lay against the rustling grass and covered his eyes against the sun. It had happened so fast; time just slipped through his fingers and before he even knew it, he was back in Konoha. That night almost seemed unreal. It was far too short... and he was far too aroused to pay attention to the important details of the night. Itachi had wanted to talk...Sasuke hadn't cared. And even know, if he could have that time back again, he didn't know if he would do anything differently.

_Sasuke woke up, blinking the sleep from his eyes. His body felt heavy but his mind felt peaceful...lazy, even. Reality and recollections hit him suddenly and he jolted up, looking around for Itachi. He signed in relief when he saw his brother in the lake, leaning quietly against the bank as he looked up at the beautiful moon. Then he couldn't have been out for long...probably a few minutes. His body was tired but once he saw Itachi, the frantic desperate state of mind returned. He had a horrible feeling that because they were away from Konoha, this was alright. But once they returned, their relationship would resume and Sasuke couldn't comprehend that; pretending as if nothing happened was something he didn't know how to do._

_Itachi was probably thinking of the future, as usual. Another difference between them; Sasuke lived in the moment and disregarded future consequences. It was the luxury of the second born; Itachi had to be the responsible one. Sasuke understood somewhat but he couldn't bring himself to empathize with Itachi. He didn't know what could possibly come from a relationship like theirs but at the moment he honestly didn't care. Itachi could worry about it if he wanted to...Sasuke was done worrying._

_Sasuke walked over to Itachi and sat down cross legged on the lake bank. Itachi was as motionless as a statue so it came as a surprise when he spoke._

_"You said "because we don't have an excuse this time." How exactly am I supposed to take that, Sasuke?"_

_Sasuke was silent for a few minutes while he separated a wet lock from Itachi's hair and fingered it thoughtfully. "I know how that sounds. What I meant to ask was would you never touch me unless there was no other option?"_

_Itachi turned to his right to look at him expressionlessly. Sasuke drank in his heaven-sent features; the alabaster skin and criminally attractive eyes whose dark color was a perfect compliment to his porcelain complexion. Sasuke brushed away some wet hairs clinging to those seductively shaped eyes. _

_"But now I wonder how I never saw you that way before..." Sasuke's eyes dropped to Itachi's lips. "You're too beautiful..." he said in a trance before leaning forward, ignoring Itachi's protest of "Sasuke" and kissing him deeply. _

_Itachi watched his little brother through lowered eyes for a few seconds before giving in._

_Itachi's tongue slid in between Sasuke's lips and entwined around Sasuke's in a raw intimate fashion. Sasuke moaned loudly and moved forward, leaning over the edge of the lake bank._

_Just when Sasuke forgot the world and everything in it, even his own name Itachi pulled back and brushed his fingers against Sasuke's bangs. _

_"I'm glad you didn't see me like that, Sasuke. You were the only person I felt comfortable around."_

_Sasuke frowned. Was that it? Itachi couldn't just kiss him like that and then stop!_

_"And now?"_

_"I don't feel comfortable around you at all."_

_Sasuke shrugged as he got up and slid into the water. "Maybe it's because you think too much."_

_Itachi shifted slightly to the left to give Sasuke more space but that was defeating the purpose. The lake was shallow where they were standing. Sasuke moved to stand in front of Itachi and slid his hands up Itachi's well defined torso._

_"Or maybe," Itachi said in a reproving tone. "It's because you keep doing this." Itachi stopped Sasuke's wondering hands with his own and pinned them to Sasuke's hips. Sasuke was unfazed. He moved a step or two closer till their bodies were touching. Sasuke's stomach was against Itachi's dick and Sasuke deliberately pressed in a bit more. _

_"Sasuke, I think that's enough. You need to get some sleep."_

_"I slept just now."_

_"You passed out."_

_Sasuke pushed Itachi against the lake bed, less forcefully than he would have liked since they were in water._

_"I'm perfectly fine, Itachi." he growled. Itachi raised a brow at Sasuke's actions then signed. _

_"Your body needs to rest." Before Sasuke could do more than open his mouth Itachi intercepted him. "It's fine, already." he said a bit roughly. "Tonight isn't different. If you need me again-" Itachi said softly, "I won't avoid you. If you so desire, tonight won't be the last time."_

_Sasuke felt a weight lift off his chest that he hadn't even noticed was there till Itachi reassured him. Still, that did nothing to quell his libido, which no amount of reassurance could satisfy._

_He wrapped his arms around Itachi's neck. "Regardless..." he said as he moved a hand in between them and trailed his fingers along Itachi's member._

_Itachi batted his hand away once more. "Stop inciting me, Sasuke."_

_Sasuke looked at Itachi through lowered eyes. "That's my line."_

_Itachi raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "You're line?"_

_Itachi looked like he needed an explanation in order to understand that. How exactly could Sasuke explain that when Itachi was dripping wet in the moonlight he was just asking for it? _

_"It's your fault." he said childishly and sucked Itachi's neck softly, savoring the water droplets there. He looked at Itachi sternly, "You're too fucking tempting..." Sasuke traced Itachi's lips with his tongue, waiting for Itachi to kiss him like he did earlier._

_Itachi's eyes darkened and before Sasuke could blink he was pushed against the curve of the lake bank__,__ his back to Itachi. Sasuke flushed slightly at the position; Itachi's dick was pressing against his ass._

_"Fine." Itachi whispered menacingly and Sasuke was excited at the idea of having sex with Itachi when he was semi-angry. Itachi's hand crawled up Sasuke's body to rest against his chest with his fingers spread out as if he were trying to clutch his heart. He trailed the other hand up Sasuke's inner thigh. Sasuke gasped but Itachi removed his hand cruelly before touching Sasuke's member which was already hard and straining and trailed two of his fingers down Sasuke's spine to his ass._

_Sasuke supposed there could have been something degradatory about the position but not the way Itachi was doing it; he was pressed flush up against him and his chin was resting on the juncture between Sasuke's neck and shoulder. He was so close Sasuke could hear Itachi's quiet breathing. It was more like Itachi was hugging him than dominating him. _

_"Three?" Itachi said teasingly, mimicking Sasuke from earlier as Sasuke shuddered at the intoxicating voice whispered in his ear. "Or Four?" as he pressed two fingers inside Sasuke and slid them in and out a couple of times._

_"Ahhh...I don't care...just do it." Sasuke said pressing against his brother._

_His brother massaged his hip in a comforting way before pushing in, a little harder than the previous times. Sasuke let out a long desperate moan, his tongue pushing out from animalistic need. He heard Itachi let out a stimulating moan in response. Itachi traced his finger against Sasuke's bottom lip and then pressed two long fingers against the younger Uchiha's tongue. Itachi pressed a firm kiss to the inside of Sasuke's neck and began to move, still tracing Sasuke's tongue with his index and middle finger while his other hand held Sasuke's thigh up as he thrusted into him harshly. _

_Sasuke propped his arms on the lake bank and jerked his hips back to meet every thrust of Itachi's till they found a steady euphoric synchronization._

_"Ahhh, Itachi..." Sasuke moaned, gripping the soft earth under his nails. Itachi responded by moving harder and faster and pressing his face into Sasuke's soft hair, which was now a little wet as the water kept splashing them slightly with the rocking movement. Itachi's fingers curled around Sasuke's cock and pumped his length a few times before Sasuke came, throwing his head back and screaming hoarsely. Itachi redirected his hand from Sasuke's cock to his hip to aid in their movement. Sasuke was beyond spent but tried weakly to rock against Itachi. Itachi's other hand left Sasuke's mouth and rubbed against a sensitive nipple; Sasuke threw his hands back to fist them in Itachi's hair._

_Sasuke turned around and was immediately met with Itachi's lips kissing him frantically before he came a few seconds later with a moan so sexy it would have aroused Sasuke once more if he were not already past his limit. Exhausted, they leaned against the other for a few minutes before Itachi pulled out and rested against the lake bank, pulling Sasuke against him and wrapping his strong arms around Sasuke's waist. Sasuke covered Itachi's hands with his own and leaned back against his brother. _

_"Wow__.__.." Sasuke said softly. His eyes felt really heavy and he cursed his body's limits. Itachi and he rarely ever got to spend time together. Despite what Itachi said, he really didn't know when they'd have time for each other like this. And now Sasuke was addicted. It really was Itachi's fault. If he wasn't so desirable and so fucking talented at sex Sasuke might not want it all the time._

_The water lapped gently against the entwined brothers as they rested their bodies. _

_Itachi murmured, "We still haven't actually spoken." He signed. "I have to go soon, Sasuke."_

_"Where are you going?" Sasuke asked tiredly._

_"Somewhere close by." Itachi answered without actually answering. "You should head back first."_

_"Do you know when you will return?"_

_Itachi was silent for a second before he said, "Soon."_

_Sasuke signed. He used to be so dependent on Itachi when he was younger...waiting for his brother to come home to play with him...that seemed like another life...but he felt something similar to that feeling now...he didn't want Itachi to go. It was ridiculous, he scolded himself. There was a limit to this longing. And how the hell could he long for him when Itachi was right here?_

_Sasuke pushed away from his brother, angry with the fact that he was upset over such a stupid thing. _

_"One second, Sasuke. Didn't you want to know about the organization?"_

_Sasuke looked at Itachi blankly and then nodded. _

_After Itachi had told Sasuke what he knew, Sasuke looked at him suspiciously._

_"How do you know all this?"_

_Itachi signed. "I was invited to join."_

_Sasuke nodded at his brother and made to get out of the lake before changing his mind and moving towards Itachi. He gave his brother a long closed mouth kiss which Itachi understood to mean that his brother was going to miss him and then moved away, not looking at Itachi as he got out of the lake._

Sasuke ran his fingers through his hair and rolled onto his side. He had to stop this now. Itachi wasn't just sitting still and twiddling his thumbs and Sasuke was pretty damn sure Itachi wasn't in a field somewhere thinking about the two of them and lingering on the details. He got up grimly, that was a wonderful interlude but now he needed to get back to reality.

... ...

_One Day Previously_

... ...

Itachi walked along the empty corridors that were so similar and numerous the entire thing was like a maze. He finally arrived at the door he sought and after knocking thrice, entered.

The room was filled with stifling perfumes and smoke that were an altogether unpleasant assault on the senses. It was decorated with many vibrant multi-patterned rugs and many cats crawled about, mewing loudly at Itachi's entrance. Itachi gave the room a cursory once over, noting that those creepy cat ornaments fashioned out of glass, plastic and cheap ceramic were still there, before settling his gaze upon the obese figure in the centre of the room who was surveying him while puffing on a pipe with a sour face.

"Itachi Uchiha," she rasped in a dry throaty voice, drawing out all the syllables in his name. "What brings you here?"

A black cat jumped onto Itachi and he reflexively caught in his hands. It purred and rubbed against his hands.

Itachi watched the cat flex its lithe body while replying, "Information. Where are the diaries of the ancient Uchiha?"

The cat lady smiled toothlessly at the young boy before her. "You wish to research something unpleasant."

Itachi looked back at her stoically.

"It must be unpleasant if it involves Madara." she took a great puff from her pipe. "He is the only one who left the ancient diaries to be stored here in secret. He visited us only twice. Once to hide his family's diaries and the other time, just recently...to burn them."

Itachi glared.

"You are too late, young Uchiha!" she seemed unnecessarily delighted. "He visited us just around a week ago. He said you would come and so you did. He left a message for you," and the old lady stuck up her middle finger.

Itachi rolled his eyes. "Would you happen to know anything about a ritual called Innocence Mortality, Oba-san?"

"You think I would violate the trust placed in me and look into private documents?"

There was a pause and the woman shook in laughter letting out a raspy cackling sound that made the cat jump out of Itachi's hands.

"It was decoded. A sharingan is needed, as is always the case...Know this...young one. Whatever his plans, foil it instantly lest you desire a second Madara born into this world."

"A second Madara?"

"He once told me, a hundred years ago that he stopped ageing when his brother and his sister died. He also expressed his loneliness and the desire for another being like himself; an immortal. A second Madara, he called it. I believe," she said grabbing a cat suddenly in what looked like a ferocious manner and dropped it in her lap, "that was the first human side of an Uchiha I saw. His intentions may have changed now..." she stroked the cat roughly as she trailed off in deep thought. "He may not have aged a day...that little bastard, but I saw the same longing in his eyes a week ago that I saw a hundred years ago, the same but different...crazed and...Hungry...like a man whose demonic dreams are about to come true."

Itachi was skeptical about the entire story. How could Madara have journeyed here to destroy any evidence and not prepared against this woman's anecdotal evidence?

"Itachi Uchiha. He is not human anymore...he has lived too long and knows not what to do with his life. He doesn't even remember that time we spoke. Itachi Uchiha," she said once more, "What think you of this?"

Itachi smiled at the woman easily. "I wouldn't be able to stand a second Madara."

The woman cackled at the boy in demented amusement.

Itachi's smile became a bit sardonic before he made to leave. "Thank you, Oba-san."

"Keep in touch. I want to know who will emerge victorious."

... ...

_Present Time_

... ...

Sasuke entered the ward and was greeted with the doubly unpleasant sight of Madara and Fugaku on either side of his mother's bed.

Fugaku glanced at Sasuke once and then deciding to ignore him, turned towards Mikoto.

Madara, on the other hand was much more careful in his perusal of Sasuke and raised in eyebrows in amused surprise at the bruises on Sasuke's neck.

"Well, Well, Sasuke...What tiger marked you?"

Fugaku looked up at the comment and took in Sasuke's ravished neck and shoulders with disgust. The look on his face practically screamed that the boy was a slut. Sasuke bit his tongue to keep himself from smirking but the triumphant self-satisfaction must have been reflected in his eyes for Fugaku straightened in shock as if suspecting the truth. He frowned, skepticism crossing his features then looked appalled as the possibility must have struck him and once more doubt flitted across his face.

Sasuke was simply delighted to see Fugaku change color and expression so fast like that. He didn't think it was possible for sex with Itachi to be any better than it was. He stood corrected.

Madara watched their exchange in silent speculation. Then drawing himself up to full height, he smirked, looking slightly disbelieving.

"You're kidding me...Itachi gave in?"

Fugaku glared at Madara. "Don't talk nonsense, Madara." he growled. "Tsunade told me what actually took place. And if that was the case..."

Sasuke looked at the man, knowing an apology wasn't coming his way even if Fugaku now knew the truth. That much was clear just in the way Fugaku looked at him.

"Itachi is a hero. He did it to end the war." And then he gave Sasuke a nasty look, wondering why Sasuke had never tried to tell him this, if it was true...which he really wanted to believe it was.

Madara smirked at the man determined to have at least one proud son and hold on to the belief that he hadn't screwed up badly as a father. And then he looked at Sasuke who didn't seem to care anymore, looking instead at his mother who remained frail and was now devoid of any pigmentation.

"I knew he would never do such a thing consensually."

Madara shook his head, scoffing. "The fuck he wouldn't. He fucked me after asking me to henge into Sasuke."

Sasuke snapped his head around to stare at Madara in utter shock.

"_What_?"

"**WHAT**?"

Madara blinked innocently. "What?"

Deafening silence filled the room and the Uchihas, save for Madara who surveyed Sasuke's hickeys in quiet brooding, didn't move an inch.

"You know," Madara said suddenly in a deep and menacing tone of voice, "You have no idea how lucky you are to have him as your brother."

Mr. Denial decided to intervene. "Another one of your lies that you think is funny, Madara."

Madara shrugged easily. "You see what you want to see." Madara made a mock realization face. "Oh...now _who_ said that? Let me see, let me see...oh ye-e-s, It was _Itachi... _right before I sucked his dick." he finished maliciously, looking around for reactions.

Fugaku looked about ready to kill him; veins throbbed madly in his forehead.

Sasuke was still in shock. What the hell had Madara just said? He had suspected that the two of them had been together like that but...he didn't realize the voicing of those thoughts would hurt so much...nor did he know what to think about Madara henging into him. Itachi had asked him to do that? But then why the hell should he believe Madara, who just loved to mindfuck people?

Sasuke, feeling the stare on him, looked up to see Madara giving him a nasty look.

"It burns you up, doesn't it? I understand; I wouldn't want a sex-god like him to touch anyone else either."

Sasuke fisted his hands. The desire to destroy Madara in a slow and painful manner was overwhelming. It was amazing actually how much the Uchihas in the room all wished pain and death for the other over a single Uchiha.

Before any of them actually had a chance to act upon it however, Mikoto suddenly sat up in bed and all eyes snapped to her.

Fugaku forgot his anger and looked at his wife in concern and hope. Madara was suddenly deadly serious as he looked at Mikoto with an expression akin to greed.

But Mikoto was stretching her hand out towards Sasuke, who stared at his mother, wide eyed and tight mouthed.

Then suddenly, all within the course of a few seconds, things happened all at once.

Mikoto's body became engulfed in a black substance that flickered and licked at her skin and flesh. Fugaku yelled something indecipherable and Madara took a step forward, gazing hard at the black substance as though trying to identify it, but before any time had passed at all, Mikoto's body was disappearing. The black thing eating at her were flames.

It was black fire.

Such a thing was unheard of in itself but as Mikoto's body burned away faster than the eyes could follow, there appeared to be something within her, looking directly at Sasuke.

All Sasuke saw was his mother burning away before him and a glint of black marble eyes...the same eyes he and Itachi had seen on their earlier visit, before unbelievable, indescribable pain hit him. His head felt like it was splitting in two. Agony gripped his entire body and his eyes felt like they were on fire.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

:

:

:

TBC


	13. Set fire to the rain

A certain chakra signature spiked to alert the Hokage of his presence.

Tsunade didn't turn around to greet him, just continued to gaze out the window at her beloved village.

"Itachi, I didn't expect you back so soon."

"My informants were more co-operative than I had anticipated."

Tsuande looked over her shoulder to give him a cursory once over.

"Despite your fortune, you look exhausted. Get some rest, Itachi."

Itachi, Tsunade noticed, didn't show any sign of agreeing to that.

"Itachi," she called, just as he was about to leave.

She turned to face him, striding forward. Itachi just watched her impassively till she came to stand in front of him.

She saw the fatigue in his eyes despite his perfect deadpan face.

"I don't agree with the method, but it happened and I never said it..." she looked straight into his eyes in complete seriousness and gratitude, "Thank you for protecting my village."

For once, Itachi looked affected. His eyes revealed more surprise than anything at first then they softened to acceptance. "It is my village as well, Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade smiled and stepped back, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.

::

_Yes._ Here it was, earlier perhaps, than he had expected but the timing was inconsequential; the proof of his hypothesis and the confirmation of the weight of his own existence was before him.

Madara had no eyes for Sasuke who was on his knees, clutching his head against the pain undoubtedly raging through him or Fugaku who was standing there frozen from the shock of watching his wife burn away to nothing and seeing what her body had been host to. Madara watched in dark triumph the young boy before him, hardly higher than his knees in height as he looked worriedly at Sasuke.

The boy was still very young; Madara had been older when he had killed his mother but it didn't matter; he seemed old enough to comprehend the basics. The boy was very small and slight but his cheeks had a babyish roundness to them. He had black eyes, similar to Sasuke's but much wider than his, they were like endless pools of liquid black. His hair however was brownish black like Itachi's and Fugaku's. He looked strikingly similar to Sasuke when he was about that age, the only obvious difference being his hair color.

_A boy_, Madara mused. He honestly didn't care either way but he began to wonder if it generated only boys? Perhaps they were more suited to the purpose but it was better than way. Madara already felt a kindred relatability towards the little child. And those black flames, that still surrounded the boy in a kind of protective shroud, were most intriguing; Madara couldn't wait to find out everything he could...

The boy's attention was captured by Sasuke. Wide eyes blinked in childish worry and then a second later the boy began to move off the bed. Madara cut him off and then those huge eyes were turned on him...

The innocence and earnest in that absorbing stare would be short lived...

"Welcome to the world," Madara said with a vulpine smile.

The boy looked to the man before him and then back at Sasuke and then to Fugaku and then at the room around him, taking it all in, glancing a couple more times at the people in the room before finally settling back on Madara who waited patiently for the boy's focus.

Madara wished Itachi could have been here for this; he would give anything to see Itachi's reaction to all this...but he couldn't ignore the strong desire to talk to the boy in private.

Madara was a lucky man; usually he got the things he desired and just as he was about to take the boy away with a space/time jutsu he was once again granted his wish by fate and Itachi came into the room.

Madara watched him carefully as Itachi looked around, speedily assessing and then moved to Sasuke.

But just as Itachi was about to place his hand on Sasuke's shoulder, Sasuke batted his hand away and shakily stood up, his fists clenched in the effort not to scream out against the pain he was feeling. Itachi watched as the blood trickled down Sasuke's eyes, a conflict in his eyes before he turned away from his little brother.

Madara watched them from the corner of his eyes and when Itachi's furious eyes settled on him, he wagged his finger at Itachi.

"No, no, mustn't touch. You cannot disturb the eyes in any way when they are evolving unless you want to risk him going blind. What unfortunate timing Sasuke has."

"Sas...ke."

Madara and Itachi both slowly turned to the naked boy who had just spoken in a soft uncertain voice. Fugaku was still a gaping vegetable near the bed.

"Yes," Madara confirmed to the boy, who looked at him in wonder before turning to take in his fill of Itachi. "That's boy's name is Sasuke."

Itachi stared at the boy with wide and unsure eyes.

Madara crouched down to the boy's eye level and inclined his head towards Itachi.

"And that one...is called Itachi."

"Where is our mother, Madara?" Itachi asked tensely.

"Dead," Madara said cuttingly. "You just missed the show."

Fugaku let out a whimpering gasp. No one paid him any attention.

Sasuke couldn't see anything, he could only hear their voices when he concentrated as hard as he could but it was impossible to follow their conversation; this pain wasn't a joke. Sasuke felt like his eyes were being dipped in molten lava and his head was being repeatedly cracked open. How in the hell was he supposed to endure this for twenty four fucking hours? But he willed himself not to scream; his stubborn pride reminded him that Itachi had endured it much better than this so he just had to put up with it. He was aware that something significant was happening but he was barely suppressing the desire to just succumb to the pain and yell his lungs out as it was... devoting attention to anything else was simply not possible at the moment.

Madara smiled sickeningly at the boy as he said, "The adults need to talk for a little while. You can wait for me..." and he sucked the boy into his space/time jutsu, transporting him away from Konoha for now. It wouldn't do to let him talk to Itachi right now...that could come later, after Itachi decides what to think of the boy.

"So," Madara drawled intertwining his fingers together and stretching them out luxuriantly before him. "We need to talk in private. And Sasuke needs his rest." Madara spared Fugaku a glance.

"And him...I don't know. Take a walk, grieve the death of your wife...this really doesn't concern you much."

Fugaku didn't appear to have heard, only stared stupidly at the place where his wife had been. It had happened so fast...it was so easy to not believe that it was final...and irreversible. Surely she wasn't dead...she could still be...

Itachi was lost as to what to do as he saw unshed tears filling his father's eyes and watched as his brother fought hard against the pain of the Mangekyou awakening.

Madara clicked his tongue impatiently. "There's nothing you can do." he walked the few steps to Sasuke, grabbed him by his arm and picked him up easily as though Sasuke were nothing but a rag doll and dropped him, none too gently, on the bed.

"There," Madara said dispassionately. "That's as comfortable as he's ever going to get. Let's go...or are you not interested in this matter anymore? The one you've been trying to get to the bottom of for days now?"

Itachi simply looked at the man before him with his mask of apathy on, wondering how much more he would ruin his life before he was finally satisfied.

:: :: ::

Once the two of them were alone in one of Madara's stone walled rooms and both of them seated on opposite ends, Madara, looking thoughtful, started to speak.

"How much do you know about me, Itachi? I doubt you know anything at all. Funny, considering I'm the person closest to you."

Itachi didn't say a single word. He just watched Madara with hawk-like eyes, waiting...

"I wonder..." Madara fixed Itachi with a piercing look. "What you will decide when I tell you this..."

Madara took his time, seemingly preoccupied with some thoughts before speaking again.

"The ritual that you and your beloved Sasuke took part in...do you remember the name of it?"

Itachi didn't reply, just heightened his glare.

Madara rolled his eyes. "Co-operate with me now, Itachi. I don't like the idea of talking to a statue."

The look on Itachi's face clearly told Madara he didn't give a fuck.

Madara could be stubborn too. He crossed his arms and simple sat there as silence filled the room and stretched for an unfortunate amount of time before Itachi finally snapped and relented to his wish.

"Innocence Mortality."

Madara smiled in sick satisfaction. "Very good...yes. Do you know why it is called Innocence mortality?"

Itachi was silent before Madara gave him a reproving look. Gritting his teeth in frustration he answered like a good school boy: "No, I don't." 

"Well…simply put, it is like the death of innocence...since willingly committing such an immoral act for power is akin to selling your soul to the devil. In fact, there's precious little distinction. In my time, incest was common because of the elitist mentality that in-breeding would result in superior offspring but that was purely cultural; the majority of people still thought that incest was an unforgivable sin, that no power was worth it and would naturally condemn those willing to do such things for power. Uchiha attributed that attitude to jealousy and tried time and time again to advance their abilities by this method. But little was known about it even then and each time they tried, it resulted in failure. Till a boy possessing a rare mutation; the Mangekyou, tried and finally, the ritual yielded results." Madara gave Itachi a pointed look. "Three outcomes, to be precise."

Itachi raised a brow.

Madara smiled at the boy. "Remind me again, what were the powers I promised?"

"I obtain an infinite Mangekyou and Sasuke obtains Mangekyou."

"So that would be two weapons."

"There's another." Itachi said heavily.

Madara smiled, seemingly delighted. "Oh, yes. You just met him."

Itachi sat up straighter. "What are you saying, Madara?"

"But I believe you already know, right? Shall I put it in simpler terms? That boy is a human weapon, who will be, take my word for it, unbelievably powerful. And of course, this power as usual, comes with a price, another soul- staining act; matricide. Your mother is dead, her life force, energy and knowledge was all drained out of her and fed into that boy...which is why he has some years on him and will be able to understand basic speech."

Itachi looked at the ground, thinking fast. "What on earth...? He is a human no matter how you look at him...a weapon? What are you talking about?"

Madara looked at Itachi coldly before getting up from his seat and walking over to stand in front of him.

"You know...that's how everyone regarded me."

Itachi looked at Madara in surprise as the latter gave him a twisted smile.

"When I was born...people treated me like a weapon, to be used at their disposal and at their command. Wars...I can't tell you how many I fought, believing that to be my only purpose in life...it still is because... that's _why_ I was born. My brother Izuna had sex with my sister Izanami and from that union resulted three powers the likes of which has never been seen amongst the Uchiha; their Mangekyous and ...me. I was the first successful human weapon created...I guess you could say my living this long is proof."

"Then that boy...is immortal? No, before that...if that is really how you were born...you said your sister and your brother..."

"Ah, yes..." Madara said flippantly, messing up the hair at the back of his head, "Although this really depends on your perspective...you could consider that boy...since he comes from the same mother...as Sasuke's and your brother."

"..."

Itachi stared at Madara, his eyes wide at the revelation. Madara inclined his head, letting the boy take a while to digest the implications of that statement, while he entertained himself by taking in the boy's ever stunning beauty.

Unable to stop himself he brushed the silky bangs away from Itachi's face. The action however seemed to jolt Itachi back and he grabbed the collar of Madara's shirt and brought him closer. Though the action was forceful, there was no anger in his face.

"Why?"

Madara made an irritated face. "I have already told you my reasons but if you need some more...how about that the boy will be an asset to me no matter what? You can ignore his existence or treat him like a tool...that's fine; I can use him. After all he and I have a connection; we are the only two of our kind. It's more likely he will throw his lot in with me rather than you or Sasuke."

Madara gripped Itachi's wrists tightly even as the boy slowly loosened his hold on the material of Madara's t-shirt. "I needed to know what I was...what I am. Because before you, Itachi," Madara gave Itachi a look that made him uncomfortable, "there was no way I could know for sure, what I was and what the fuck this ritual meant because I was unique and nobody fulfilled the requirements for the procedure. The whole thing could have been a series of arbitrary events that weren't even co-related."

Itachi glared at the man. "So in other words, you really didn't give a fuck about the war, you just wanted to research your origins and Sasuke and I were your test subjects."

Madara removed his hands from Itachi's wrists. "You're complaining? I saw your handiwork on Sasuke's neck just now...do you still want to act the martyr?"

"If it weren't for you he and I wouldn't be in this hopeless situation. What more could you possibly do, Madara, to further mess up my life?"

Madara gave a humorless laugh. "That's rich, coming from you, Itachi. You know, Izuna was possibly the only one who treated me like a human and even that regard came after years and many accomplishments on my part. But you...you say there's no way he could be a human weapon and you've only just seen him once! It's ridiculous...the way you think...even in your interactions with Sasuke...if it means his safety you'll do it...no matter what. Having a brother like you...if I had …you're the one who made me question what I thought I was..."

Itachi scoffed, turning his face away. "That sounds like some sort of confession."

Madara was taken aback for a moment before he smiled at Itachi in a very ugly hostile way, resisting the urge to slap him for that impudent comment. "Don't flatter yourself, Itachi. I'm just comparing you to Izuna, that's all."

Itachi lapsed into quiet thought while Madara was left to feel just slightly uncomfortable with how the conversation had turned out. How on earth had this precocious brat managed to distract him from meeting with the boy and after he had been waiting for so long to do so? But before he left, he wanted to know...

"So, you and Sasuke are lovers now?"

Itachi looked at Madara, raising a brow at the question. "It's none of your business, is it?" he said coolly.

It was Madara's turn to raise an eyebrow. "What's with that attitude? And I'm practically your matchmaker. I told you that you would thank me soon."

Itachi made a sardonic face. "It's not like that."

Madara was interested, despite himself. "What's it like, then?"

Itachi caught on easily. "Why so interested?" Itachi raised a superior brow. "More comparative notes on me and Izuna?"

Madara narrowed his eyes; he had created a monster. Itachi was getting too good at using sarcasm and for some reason, he was getting turned on by it, inappropriate as it seemed.

He gripped Itachi's hair at the back of his head and pulled on it harshly, forcing Itachi to look up at him.

"Don't get cocky, Itachi. You think I care either way? Whatever you and Sasuke are...it makes no difference to me."

But being this close to Itachi wasn't helping his case. If Madara were to show any sign of lust Itachi would catch it. So he let go of Itachi abruptly and left, swirling out of sight via his space/time jutsu.

:: :: ::

Madara materialized at one of Akatsuki's secret bases, where there was plenty of food and weapons and where he had sent the boy. After looking around for a short while, he found the boy eating an apple while sitting on a table. The flames were no longer enshrouding him. He had found and clothed himself in the black Akatsuki coat that was several sizes too big for him.

"Ah," he boy exclaimed when he noticed Madara, less enthusiastically than he would have liked.

"Sasuke." the boy said.

Madara made a face. "No. My name is Madara."

The boy smiled. "Madara. Is Sasuke okay?"

"Why do you ask?"

The boy needed to think before he could answer that. "He didn't look okay. And he was in danger before."

"What do you mean?" Madara asked joining him on the table.

"Before...I came out, I could...know that he was in danger."

Madara frowned. "You mean you could sense he was in danger."

"Yes," he said easily. "Not very good at this. I had a lot more information and energy to get from what I was in...the woman."

"Then, are you telling me you stopped your growth process because you sensed Sasuke was in danger and you wanted to help him?"

"I think that is it. I like Sasuke. It's a nice name. And he came to visit me often. Also, he feels nice."

"He feels nice?"

"I don't know how to say it. Inside him is something that feels nice to me."

Madara made a face. "Okay, let's forget that for now."

"Is he okay?"

Madara frowned. He forgot he had no patience for kids, who at times had one track minds and at other times they would be distracted by anything and everything, both of which were equally annoying.

"Yeah, he's fine. I'll let you see him, if you do something for me."

He nodded quickly. "I would like that. What do you want?"

"Those flames that were around you earlier…could you bring them out again?"

The boy nodded. "Is that all?"

"Would you be able to tell me why your flames have that particular color?"

He shook his head, shrugging. "I learnt...inside...that fire is red or orange or yellow. And sometimes blue...Sasuke can make fire come out of his mouth. His fire is red and orange."

Madara nodded, his irritation was offset when he remembered that the boy would, to some extent know Itachi and Sasuke, because he had leeched off Mikoto's memories and knowledge. The boy seemed a bit obsessed with Sasuke, which was strange. He was sure that Itachi had visited Mikoto just as much as Sasuke had and then some and the boy should have information on Itachi as well as Sasuke.

"Do you know anything about Itachi?"

The boy nodded. "Sasuke's brother. He loves Sasuke very much but he is never at home. He is very smart. And he is scary." The boy thought of all the knowledge he had received as facts and not subject to Mikoto's opinion. Madara could just barely remember when he too, thought the same way.

Madara chuckled at that. Mikoto was afraid of Itachi?

"Why is he scary?"

"He has no face."

"..."

"No! I mean...he has no emotions. Itachi is too serious and... never talks."

Madara grabbed an apple from the table and took a bite lazily. "Okay...we've gone off topic a bit. I was asking why your flames are black."

"I don't know. Why is anything any color?"

Madara raised a brow. The kid had a point. "So you can control this fire of yours...it is a fire, isn't it?"

"I think so. When I want something to burn, it will burn till it's gone completely. I wanted to stop the lady from being burned because I wanted to get more energy and facts but I couldn't. When you left me here, I burned some things."

Madara looked about. There was no evidence that anything had been burned. There were no signs or smoke smells or ash. Nothing. What a mysterious fire indeed.

"What did you burn?"

"A chair. A stone. A tree. A rock. A barrel. Water. A -"

"What? You burned water?"

"Yes."

Madara looked at the boy uncertain for a while, before he got off the table and asked the boy to follow him. Outside of the base there was a thin winding river which Madara pointed at.

"Can you burn that?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Let's see."

The boy didn't even look like he had to make an effort. He just looked at the water surface and the black flames appeared, tiny in the middle of the river but they weren't extinguished by the water, instead the flames were consuming the water and there was no smoke generated either. Soon, the river was gone. Madara was impressed. An indestructible untraceable fire. What an exquisite power. They really were a powerful breed.

Madara made a shadow clone and the boy looked at in interest.

"A shadow clone." he said matter-of-factly before the shadow clone in question pulled out a kunai and ran it through him. The boy was surprised at the suddenness of the attack but the kunai simply went right through his stomach; where a wound should have been, there were only black flames licking away at the hole created and when the shadow clone withdrew, his hand was on fire and he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The fire closed in on the opening in the boys' body, sealing his flesh as though no attack had been executed.

In addition, Madara assessed, his body appeared to be a walking incarnation of this black fire and even simply touching the boy would be dangerous. If this was the case, he would be virtually immune to any conventional physical harm.

"You're powerful."

"Okay." he said simply. "Can I see Sasuke now?"

"Soon. I'm going to throw a fireball jutsu at you. Try to avoid it or counter it."

"Okay."

Well, at least he was co-operative. Madara made the hand signs and let out a huge katon jutsu which the boy didn't even blink at. Madara, though he had been expecting it somewhat, was still surprised when he saw the black flames consume the large ball of fire. Well. The boy could even burn water and normal fire.

Madara grinned at the boy who didn't smile back this time.

"You need a name and I have the perfect one for you."

The boy looked at him expectantly.

"From now on, your name will be Amaterasu."

:

:

:

TBC

It might be confusing but Amaterasu is like a logia. Those of you who read _One piece_ should know as for the rest; they have the abilities to turn their bodies into a natural element. Amaterasu looks human but is really walking, talking fire.


End file.
